• THE NUMBERS • GAME
I hate math and always have. We joke that all my sons inherited my math gene, but then my dad pointed out that Grandma was a math teacher. I guess, just as in deer management, you can’t blame genetics every time expectations aren’t met.
Still, numbers (not math) can be interesting. The whitetail world is full of enlightening facts and numbers, so maybe it’s time we take a quick tour of deer by the numbers.
½ INCH PER DAY
Antler growth occurs throughout the summer months for our deer in North America. The abundant blood flow in velvet covering the growing antlers makes them warm to the touch.
Besides carrying nutrients to the growing antlers, the warmth promotes cell division and rapid tissue growth. Arteries mostly feed the growing tips where the blood flows through the active growth zone and returns down the center of the antler early in development, but then by way of velvet veins later as the antler begins to harden.
The grooves we all see later on hardened antlers are the channels where the blood vessels supplied the nutrients and minerals to the growing antlers. This antler growth during the spring and summer is incredible. At their peak, antlers can grow at a rate of half an inch per day. This makes them the fastest growing tissue in
