Heritabilities for antler characteristics and body weight in yearling white-tailed deer

Antler Characteristics and Body Mass of Spike- and Fork-antlered Yearling White-tailed Deer at Maturity

We compared antler characteristics and body mass at 4.5 years of age (adult) of 140 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) reared in a captive herd at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area (Hunt, Texas) from 1973 to 1990. Each yearling (1.5 years old) was classified as spike(N = 43) or fork-antlered (N = 97), and its live body mass recorded. Fork-antlered yearlings were further partitioned into...

Trauma-Induced Malformed Antler Development in Male White-Tailed Deer

Though normal antlers are branched and bilaterally symmetrical, male white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) sometimes develop malformed antlers because of various reasons. As management for antler quality has grown more popular in recent years, there has been concern that spike-on-one-side (SOOS) antler configuration has a genetic cause. We hypothesized that the majority of SOOS antlers are...

Evaluation of Antler-based Selective Harvest Criteria on Harvest and Antler Size of Male White-tailed Deer in Florida

Antler-based selective-harvest criteria (SHC) for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management is common on public lands throughout the Southeast despite little published literature examining their effects on harvest composition, antlered harvest per unit effort (HPE), and antler scores. Particularly, SHCs may select against larger-antlered males within each age cohort, resulting in sm...

Effect of pinealectomy on seasonal androgen titers, antler growth and feed intake in white-tailed deer.

A 1-year experiment was conducted to determine the role of the pineal gland in the seasonal sexual, antler development and feeding patterns of deer. Three mature male whitetailed deer were pinealectomized. These animals along with four normal bucks were housed in individual outdoor pens. Blood samples were drawn bi-weekly and analyzed for calcium and phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and total ...

The White - Tailed Deer