An odd shed deer antler caught our eyes during a woodsy March walk. We’ve enjoyed shed hunting for years and have found plenty, but this one was unusual.
What is a Shed?
Deer, elk, moose, and caribou all shed their antlers a couple of months after the breeding season. Usually in January and February the antlers loosen from the bucks’ heads and fall off. We’ve learned to seek sheds in places where a deer jumps over a fence or crosses a stream in a deep valley. The jar caused by the jump or climb sometimes dislodges the antlers. Sometimes just one drops and the other at some other place. Other times, one can find a matching pair of sheds. Gold!
Oddity
Odd find.
The antler we found recently wasn’t especially large, but its location was weird. It was four feet off the ground in the branches of a tall shrub. We guess that the buck was walking through thick shrubbery when his nearly ready to fall off antler caught in the branches and came off. That’s unusual but there was one other strange thing about it.
Location and Condition
We walk that trail often but never noticed the antler on earlier walks. It was well-weathered and bleached white. A squirrel had chewed a big notch out of the antler, almost cutting it in two. So, it must have come off the deer about a year before we found it. Why we hadn’t spotted it sooner is a mystery.
Why Shed Hunt?
Antler hunting is a fun outdoor activity. They can be found any month, but the best season for searching is in late winter, just after the deer have shed them, the show has melted, and before spring vegetation grows to hide them.
Matter of Luck
We’ve noticed another odd thing about shed hunting. At least for us. When we go out deliberately seeking them, we sometimes, but rarely, find one. At other times when we’re absent-mindedly rambling through the woods we’ll step on one!
In An Improbable Place
Golden! A pair.
The deer that caught his antler in the shrub likely lived to shed a new set of antlers this year. Maybe our neighbor found it. She was astonished to find two shed antlers on the lawn behind her house, only about 500 yards from where we found the seasoned and chewed one. The new finds were much bigger, but bucks generally grow a larger antler every year.
Keep your eyes open for these fun finds.
