Genetics or Nutrition

[tnfirefighter]

OK I need a some advice. Ive got 6 people on a 300 acre lease. Lately we have noticed in a few of our bucks caught on camera, that the left browtine is missing. A few of us thought it was because of sparring or possibly broke off while rubbing trees. My question is.....Could this be genetics? and is this passed on from generation to generation? Or is this a nutritional thing? Is there any way to cull this out or are we fighting a loosing battle? We have seen it on everything from 1.5 year old to 3-4 year old bucks. We have only been trying the management thing for about 3 years. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mike243]

i have seen horn traits like a missing brow tines or a very narrow rack ect,i think i have read the doe is passing it,it dont take long when they are having twins to start seeing them regular

 

[BSK]

It is fairly common to see a particular antler trait/shape over and over in a given location. But is it possible to "cull" this out of the herd? No.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

It think it is more of a genetics thing tnfirefighter, if its on most every buck. Over time on different pieces of property, you will see re-occurrances like this (bucks with a distinct feature). What I have seen, is things change over time. We have had our place for over a decade, though have been hunting the property close to 17 years. We bought our place from an old friend that was filing for bankruptcy. From the time we first started hunting that property until about 2005, most bucks killed or seen had their left browtine missing, or shorter, etc....Well, for a few years, it was the right browtine. In the last couple of years, we have seen a more normal trend of both browtines. Since about 2009, it seems we have been hunting a whole new property from the quality of more mass, longer tines, wider spread, etc.....I think it is more with the way mother nature works. And thats something you dont try to mess with. Not saying you cant change things, but sometimes all the pieces will eventually fall into place.

From over the years, I bet that if I was shown 2 pictures of bucks, one from my property and one from another property, distinguishing the one from my property would be a breeze.

Good luck

 

[Football Hunter]

How would you know which doe to kill?

 

[BSK]

How would you know which doe to kill?

That's why you can never cull out a particualr antler trait. Not only does at least 50% of the genetic material (and some research indicates it is far more than that) come from the mother, it appears the whitetail species has developed extreme genetic diversity as a survival mechanism. Many of their behaviors appear to have developed expressly for the purpose of maximizing gene flow across long geographic distances.

 

[Truedouble]

Just be glad you aren't seeing a bunch of bucks with 4 or 5 on one side and a cow horn on the other... A lot of people I know that hunt in central south Bama have a terrible problem with this. Whether it's genetics or from injury I don't know but thank goodness we don't have this issue on our property.

 

[BSK]

Whether it's genetics or from injury I don't know but thank goodness we don't have this issue on our property.

The spike-on-one-side issue in South AL is an injury-induced problem due to their late rut.

 

[tnfirefighter]

We have only been trying qdm on this property for 3 years, but I have hunted it for 15 years now. I started looking back at pictures and can see the trait as far back as 7-8 years now. All the bucks have the same horn crooked, with the brow tine missing. Thanks guys for the posts

 

[Truedouble]

Whether it's genetics or from injury I don't know but thank goodness we don't have this issue on our property.

The spike-on-one-side issue in South AL is an injury-induced problem due to their late rut.

Yes, I remember discussing this in the past. I was convinced it was genetics, but your point about their late rut and injury definitely makes sense.

 

[BSK]

Whether it's genetics or from injury I don't know but thank goodness we don't have this issue on our property.

The spike-on-one-side issue in South AL is an injury-induced problem due to their late rut.

Yes, I remember discussing this in the past. I was convinced it was genetics, but your point about their late rut and injury definitely makes sense.

And Auburn has looked into this problem, examining harvested spike-on-one-side-bucks, and finding most had obvious pedicle injuries on the spike side.