Won't give up his headgear!

[tjones]

Smh

 

[James Riley]

Smh

First it's Wiff, now it's Smh. A better response would be "I stand corrected." Not so much passive aggression involved.

 

[tjones]

Corrected, no

 

[James Riley]

Corrected, no

Yes, but you don't know it. That's more common than eo-antlers.

 

[James Riley]

Another term is peruke antlers.

https://books.google.com/books?id=U...EILjAD#v=onepage&q="perennial antler"&f=false

One citation found 130+ in 8,000 of one species of cervid.

 

[shoots-straight]

We weren't talking about abnormalities like velvet that doesn't come off. We were talking about some spike bulls and apparently a common phenomenon with some of them that carry their antlers more than 1 year. I understand abnormalities, but in their world, just as ours those are not common. I've lived in elk country for 55 years, read a lot about elk and even books like "Elk of North American" and haven't found where this could be common. If there's better proof available, I'm always ready to read some more, so if there's a link to some evidence to support this please post it up.

 

[shoots-straight]

For the record we weren't talking about castrated deer, or abnormalities associated with them. We were talking about an apparently common malady where seemingly healthy spike bull elk carry their horns for more than 1 year.

 

[James Riley]

For the record we weren't talking about castrated deer, or abnormalities associated with them. We were talking about an apparently common malady where seemingly healthy spike bull elk carry their horns for more than 1 year.

For the record, that's what you were talking about. I stated: "I've read about cows and some bulls that grow one set and keep them for life due to some kind of hormone problem. They usually stay in velvet and they don't grow in size beyond what they got the first year. I've also read about bulls that hold their first set through an entire year before they reset to normal. Again, it was a hormone thing. Elk, like people, have their transgenders and whatnot."

And I said that in response to your post which followed Paul in Idaho's posts and others that were not so limited. Where did this thread get limited to "seemingly healthy spike bull elk"?

 

[windymtnman]

After posting my seeing a Spike Bull a few days ago, yesterday I went out shed hunting. I'm pretty sure the area I went hasn't seen a human since last Fall.
I bumped into 3 very shaggy looking Bulls that let me get within 80 yards of them. As they made their departure, I watched them with my binos. All 3 of them had new antler growth that was already forked knobs, about 8" or so long. I guess I was shocked that they had this much antler growth already. I wondered if they were going to be such grand, mature Bulls, that they had to get an early start!

 

[shoots-straight]

And I said that in response to your post which followed Paul in Idaho's posts and others that were not so limited. Where did this thread get limited to "seemingly healthy spike bull elk"?

It's common for spikes not to drop the first year. There's a good chance he'll wear it this year as well if he's had it this long. This does not apply to all spikes but a fair # of them.

This from Elknut.

 

[James Riley]

This from Elknut.

This from Paul in Idaho: "Interesting timing on this thread. I was going to post about a similar observation. A couple nights ago I was driving through the mountains at night and saw a bull by the guardrail. He was wearing spindly little spike antlers not much longer than his ears. I only got a brief glance of him lit by my headlights and couldn't tell if they were last year's antlers that hadn't dropped yet, or the scrawniest new velvet growth I had ever seen.

The next night I saw a little buck with velvet knobs proportionally wider than that bull's spikes, so I'm guessing now that bull still has last year's antlers."

This from Elknut: "Yes, I agree! I thought it was odd to until I saw spikes carrying their same spikes into June. I used to feed a group of elk for 5 years & now & then there would be the smaller spikes keeping them & not shedding them. I ended up looking it up either through the RMEF website or Val Guiest & found out that some spikes will keep their spikes into the following year, aside from this I had not known that!"

This from teej89: "How do they regrow their antlers then? or they stay the exact same size spike the following year.... something doesn't add up, is this like a common core problem or something?"

This from you: "Sorry, not buying that one! Spikes might carry their horns into June, but rest assured they will lose them and regrow a set of rags. They might not be very big but they will lose them. Don't know why the confusion here."

Then my post.

 

[bow.hunter.406]

Not a bull a cow found the antler and glued it on I call her Kaitlen! (Sorry I couldn't help myself)

This is great!