Theory
shedhunter
3/16/05 10:18pm
Limited knowledge only lets me say that I speak opinion. Follow me, I hope this will make sense:
Ok, you have all seen times when bucks in one herd may have all their horns but two miles down the road another herd has lost most of them. Here is my thinking, a deer looses his horns roughly 1/2 year after they are born. There has got to be a connection between the day a deer is born and the day they drop their horns, as well as age. But do you think that the following could be true: a herd of deer is like a house of women, one dominate buck/woman "starts" and the rest follow (kind of like women and their menstrual cycle)! Hey maybe bucks are much more like women then we all think! HA HA!
Ok, you have all seen times when bucks in one herd may have all their horns but two miles down the road another herd has lost most of them. Here is my thinking, a deer looses his horns roughly 1/2 year after they are born. There has got to be a connection between the day a deer is born and the day they drop their horns, as well as age. But do you think that the following could be true: a herd of deer is like a house of women, one dominate buck/woman "starts" and the rest follow (kind of like women and their menstrual cycle)! Hey maybe bucks are much more like women then we all think! HA HA!
4,606
you make an interesting point. I would believe that age does have something to do with it but I believe that is not the only factor that determines when a deer drops. I think you have to take into consideration the deers feed, the deers hormones, the deers health and the deers drive and determination to loose his rack would all be factors!
I agree with you, there is this hill in Jackson Hole wyoming where on one side of the hill all the deer have dropped already and I am not kidding, you drive down the road and right on the other side, as the crow flies about 1/8 of a mile and everyone of the deer are still packing. THen again you drive by the national refuge and some of the elk have dropped while others have not.