Watch Those Antlers Grow

A deer's antlers are the fastest growing living tissue on Earth.

 

Picture from FCPS

The antlers grow between the Spring months and the Fall months.  While growing, the antlers are covered with a soft tissue known as velvet, which contains a sensitive network of nerves and blood vessels.   In the Fall, the velvet is shed and the antlers harden.  The antlers are then shed in the winter.

Why Did Santa Choose Reindeer?

You know Dasher and Dance and Donner and Blitzen and all the rest of Santa's reindeer. But how much do you really know about these Christmas icons? The Jungle Store did a little digging and found out some pretty interesting tidbits.

So why did Santa choose reindeer as his method of transportation? Perhaps he was following tradition; Reindeer have been herded for centuries and used for transportation (though there's no word on how exactly Santa gets his to fly, other than Christmas magic).

 
Reindeer also have several features that make them well-equipped to work in the cold North Pole weather. They have specialized nasal bones that increase the surface of their nostrils, which helps them warm up the air they inhale before it reaches their lungs. And their hooves adapt to the winter weather, with hoof pads shrinking and tightening, allowing them to cut and dig through ice and snow to help them travel and find food.

Did you know that Santa's reindeer are all girls? They have to be, because male reindeer lose their antlers in the winter.

Picture Of The Week - Hey, That's My Nose!

This week's picture isn't quite as astounding or head-scratching as some of our others, but we had to post it for several reasons. 1) It's adorable. 2) It's just puts us in the Christmas spirit. Although, we do feel for that poor snowman ;-)

How many of you have seen a sight like this in your backyards?

As Big As a Moose

The moose is the largest member of the deer family and one of the largest land animals in North America. Also native to northern Europe and Asia, the moose is referred to as an elk outside of North America, though it is a distinctly different animal than an American elk.

Standing up to seven feet tall at the shoulders and weighing 600-1600+lbs, moose are second in size only to bison among North American land animals. As with other types of deer, moose eat a large variety of terrestrial and aquatic plant life. The average adult moose needs over 9000 calories of food each day, requiring daily consumption of over 70lbs of plant life to survive.

Unlike other types of deer that live in herds, moose are extremely solitary animals that do not interact outside of mating season. During this time, bull moose may engage in battles with one another for mating rights, using their five foot-wide antlers as offensive weapons. After mating season has concluded, the males will shed their antlers to conserve energy throughout the winter, growing a new set within 4-5 months.

Full-grown moose are too large to have many natural enemies. In Asia, Siberian tigers have been known to hunt them, as well as brown bears. Packs of wolves or coyotes may hunt calves or winter-weakened individuals with some success as well.

Though the moose population has been reduced significantly over the last 200 years, particularly in North America, moose numbers are on the rise due to successful conservation efforts. The current worldwide moose population stands at several million, and they are considered to be an animal of least concern.

Backyard Nature - The Whitetail Deer

By far the most common large animal in North America is the whitetail deer. Now a regular sight in all but five U.S. states, the whitetail was surprisingly once much less numerous. Due to overhunting and deforestation, whitetail deer only numbered about 300,000 in the 1930s. Since then, large-scale conservation efforts and strict hunting regulations have seen whitetail populations soar to a current estimate of 30 million in the United States alone.

Part of the reason for the whitetail’s success has to do with its adaptability. These deer are capable of eating a wide variety of grasses, legumes, fruits and vegetables; even some that are poisonous to other animals. Though once confined mainly to forested areas, loss of habitat due to agriculture and urban sprawl has forced the whitetail to adapt to life in more open areas, even moving into the territory of its close cousin the mule deer in its eastern range.

Another reason whitetails thrive is because they have few natural predators. Large carnivores such as gray wolves and mountain lions have been forced into extinction in the eastern United States, and the remaining coyotes, bobcats and lynxes are too small to prey on adult deer. The only current means of whitetail population control is their popularity as a game animal.

Of course, the massive increases in both whitetail deer and human populations over the last 80 years have made interactions between the two species quite common. Deer are frequently spotted in suburban areas, and are all-too-often involved in vehicle collisions. According to the CDC, there were 247,000 deer-vehicle collisions in the United States in the year 2000 alone, resulting in over one billion dollars in property damage.

Fall marks the beginning of the mating season for whitetail deer, and is traditionally the time of year when they are most often spotted crossing roadways, often around dusk. Especially in autumn, motorists are urged to pay attention to deer crossing signs, use their high beams whenever possible and keep a sharp eye out on the road for these beautiful animals.

Siberian Tigers - The World's Biggest Cats

Though most people probably picture a wild tiger living in a warm climate, the largest of cats, the Siberian tiger, actually lives somewhere much colder.

The Siberian tiger is almost identical to the now-extinct Caspian tiger that was present across most of central Asia until recently. Caspian tigers were hunted aggressively during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries throughout Russia and China as forests were converted to farmland. The last confirmed Caspian tiger sightings occurred in the 1950’s, though unconfirmed reports still occur in the Middle East.

The current Siberian tiger can only be found in the birch forests of eastern Siberia, far northeastern China and North Korea. The wild population is estimated to be around 500 individuals. It is thought that they continue to exist in these areas because of the low human population density. 

At nearly four feet tall at the shoulders and weighing nearly 700lbs, Siberian tigers are taller and heavier than Bengal tigers. They grow shaggy winter coats to deal with cold temperatures and tend to be less brightly colored than other tigers.

The Siberian tiger is an apex predator that feeds almost exclusively on red deer and wild boar. Both black and brown bears are occasionally hunted, but this is very rare. Brown bears have been known to hunt Siberian tigers as well; an equally rare occurrence. Siberian tigers also occur in the same habitat as wolves, though wolf populations tend to be much sparser in areas where the tiger is present. 

Photo: Jelenia Sika

Despite their massive size, attacks by Siberian tigers on humans are rare. They are known to be extremely solitary animals that prefer to avoid human interaction. Most attacks throughout history have been either by wild tigers that were provoked or captive-raised tigers that did not possess an instinctual fear of humans.

Kate and Pippin

This is one of those things that just makes you smile. A year or so ago a baby fawn was abandoned by its mother on photographer Isabel Springett’s property. After about three days she decided to rescue the fawn, naming it Pippin, and the baby deer was immediately adopted by Springett’s Great Dane, Kate. Over the next year Springett chronicled the growth and friendship of the dog and deer in a series of videos and photographs.



Photo: Isobel Springett



According to her videos, Pippin, now fully grown, has gone off to live with other deer, but still visits Isobel and Kate every day.

Reindeer Travel Far

To get in the holiday mood, I wanted to write about caribou, otherwise known as reindeer. They are the only deer where both males and females have antlers, although not all females actually have them. During the spring, caribou herds travel north sometimes more than 600 miles. Once they reach their destination, an adult caribou can eat up to 12 pounds of food every day in the rich northern tundra of North America, Europe, Asia and Greenland. After the first snow fall, these same caribou travel back south, sometimes up to 1,600 miles.

Big 12 Tournament

There was an upset in the Big 12 Basketball Tournament yesterday. The Baylor Bears (ranked #4) were beaten by the Colorado Buffalos (ranked #12). But could a buffalo really beat a bear?

The animal we call a "buffalo" is actually an American Bison and is distinctively different from the true buffalos of Africa and Asia. American Bison once roamed the Great Plains in vast herds that could stretch for miles. Bison society has a very rigid "pecking" order which is enforced with horn and hoof. They may look cumbersome, but easily reach speeds of 35 mph. Bison have excellent eyesight and hearing as well as an ability to remember experiences, whether good or bad. They have massive strength and size and are not easily frightened. In fact, bison are rather inquisitive. With all these positive attributes, it is no wonder they flourished in such huge numbers. Besides humans, the bison's only true predators are Wolf packs and Grizzly bears which only attempt to prey on the young or very old and infirm.

Research into Baylor University's mascot shows the Bears has been represented by a Black Bear since the 1920s. Black bears are the smallest of the three bear species found in North America. Their range is extensive, but restricted to forested areas, not the plains. Their diet is omnivorous but they mainly eat vegetation. The stocky body that gives them strength makes them a poor predator. Black bears can overheat during prolonged chases and do not have the agility of potential prey. When a black bear does get meat, it is generally salmon, carrion or a young deer or moose calf.

Now that we've weighed the facts, The Jungle Store concludes no one should have been surprised the Buffalos beat the Bears.

Dō, a deer . . .

There are a number of Deer species. We’re familiar with Mule Deer and Whitetail Deer since that’s what is native to North America. In Africa the Red Deer belongs to the same family. In Asia there are numerous species of deer: Siberian Roe Deer, Sika Deer, Thorold's Deer, Central Asian Red Deer, Chital, Hog Deer, Barasingha, Indian Sambar, and Indian Muntjac (and I probably missed some). European deer include European Red Deer and European Roe Deer. Central and South American deer include: Taruca or North Andean Deer, Chilean Huemul or South Andean Deer, and the small Brocket Deer and Pudus, the latter being the smallest deer in the world.

Depending on species and where you live, male deer are called stags, harts, bucks, or bulls, and females are called hinds or does. In North American bucks and does are the most common terms.

Next biggest

Elk or wapiti are the 2nd largest “deer” after moose. They are native to North America and eastern Asia. There are four subspecies in North America and four from Asia. Unlike moose, elk are herd animals. The Roosevelt elk is the largest of the subspecies and is found west of the Cascade mountain range in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

During mating season bull elks antler wrestle and bugle. Listen here—it autoplays when you go to the website. The bull in the picture is bugling. Elk cows “bark” to warn of danger.