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Monday, March 07, 2005
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SNAPSHOTS FROM HOME ‘ ANTLER HUNT If you live in an area where there are deer, well, this is one of the best times of the year to find their antlers. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History. "The breeding season has just ended, the hormones are changing. And as they change, the antlers drop." We're in Westchester County, New York, tagging along on a hunt for deer antlers. "We're looking for antlers that are shed at the end of the season and we're also looking for beds where they might have bedded down for the night, because they also lose their antlers during the night. And then we're also looking for scrapes on the trees where they might have also scraped their antlers on the trees which would indicate that there are bucks in the area." Rod Christie is director of education at Teatown Lake Reservation. He tells us that the first step in antler hunting is to look for tell tale signs of deer-- such as the places where they like to rub the bark off of trees with their antlers. "This is a deer rub. This is where a buck would rub his antlers on a tree and then mark his territory. Or in the early season where he might be rubbing the velvet off his antlers. But in this case, it's a marked territory. If you were to smell that, it would probably smell kind of musty. The best places to look for deer antlers are usually at the tops of hills where the deer bed down for the night, or at the edges of fields, because they tend to bed down in fields as well and often drop their antlers there. Deer like to sit on tops of ridges because then they can look down and they feel safe; they can see a predator if a predator is coming, so they tend to bed down high up. You'd think there would be a lot out there but we don't find antlers on the ground mainly because the squirrels and the rodents eat them. High source of calcium and they eat a lot of them. So they could be dropped in the fall or winter and they could be gone by spring, chewed right up." Additional funding for Pulse of the Planet has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.’ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What a hullabaloo! Beds, scraped trees, deer rubs, musty smells, the tops of hills and the edges of fields, struggles with antler-chewing rodents… UD is here to tell you that if you’re after antlers, there’s an easier way. Put a leash on your Labrador and walk him to the top of your hilly wooded backyard. Your own suburban Maryland backyard, steps from a commuter train and a restaurant. Without even wanting antlers - without, let us admit, knowing that deer drop their antlers - you will find, as UD did this afternoon, that your dog suddenly swoops down on something which looks like an elaborately curved bone. This bone will turn out to be a beautiful alabaster deer antler. The difficult part of UD's antler-hunt strategy now presents itself: Taking the antler from the dog’s mouth. The dog is marching about with that special excited pride that tells you he knows he’s got something worth keeping between his teeth. Do not attempt to get the antler out of the dog’s mouth while the two of you are outside. Go into the house and wait for the dog to drop his guard over the antler. When this happens, you must, without hesitation, snatch the antler from him. The reason this must be done as soon as possible is that the dog, like the squirrels and rodents, is already beginning to gnaw the antler to shreds. After taking the antler from the dog, give the dog a reward (leftover vanilla ice cream in a small black ceramic teacup placed on the kitchen floor is what UD used, but there are many possibilities). Next clean the antler a bit under running water, and then study it closely. Where do you want to exhibit it? UD put her antler on her front door. It looks wonderful. |