Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Velvet antler, the antler in the premature growing stages, is the main product derived from mature bull elk. In the second year of a bull elk life the antler begins to grow and continues to do so every year after that. The velvet is harvested while in the late stages of growth, just before it starts to turn into antler.
Growth occurs at the tip, and is initially cartilage, which is later replaced by bone tissue. Once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler. In most cases, the bone at the base is destroyed by osteoclasts and the antlers fall off at some point. [6]
Velvet antler is the whole cartilaginous antler in a precalcified growth stage of the Cervidae family including the species of deer such as elk, moose, and caribou. Velvet antler is covered in a hairy, velvet-like "skin" known as velvet and its tines are rounded, because the antler has not calcified or finished developing.
Deer grow antlers anew each spring, often at the rate of an inch per day. Now, scientists want to take the cells that power deer antler growth and figure out how to give that same ability to humans.
This process of growth begins around February when the first antler nubs will emerge from the top of the head. During the spring and early summer, they will grow around half an inch per day ...
Based on this and patterns seen in modern deer, last year's antlers in Irish elk bucks were potentially shed in early March, peak antler growth in early June, completion by mid-July, shedding velvet (a layer of blood vessels on the antlers in-use while growing them) by late July, and the height of rut falling on the second week of August. Geist ...
The killing of cows in their prime is more likely to affect population growth than the killing of bulls or calves. [60] Elk may avoid predation by switching from grazing to browsing. Grazing puts an elk in the compromising situation of being in an open area with its head down, leaving it unable to see what is going on in the surrounding area. [61]
The growth and loss of antlers for most species of deer coincide closely with rutting season. In reindeer, males will begin growing their antlers in February and shedding them in November or December.