Interesting velvet shedding sequence

[BSK]

The first picture below of this buck was from August 22. If you look closely at his left G3 tine, it looks broken over, although possibly healed like that. However, in the next video (Sept. 3) it appears he has completely broken that tine off, and the tine and attached velvet are hanging (and possibly bloody). In the second video (Sept. 4), the velvet has completely shed from that antler, but not the right antler. I've never seen a buck shed just one side. I suspect his shedding of that one side was injury induced, in that breaking off his left G3 and tearing the velvet caused all of the velvet on that antler to die while the velvet on his right antler was still alive.

 

[Ski]

Huh, never seen that before. Nature is amazing. Seems velvet sends back a whole lot more information to the brain than just pain & sensitivity. What you're suggesting (and I think you're apparently correct) would be that his brain shut off velvet life only on one side. Would explain why we sometimes see racks with one side seemingly underdeveloped, or antler tips that are blunted instead of sharp, but no apparent damage causing it. I was always under the impression that testosterone spike is what spurred velvet shed. Perhaps it's a more intricate process and the testosterone spike coincides, not causes???

 

[Andy S.]

Cool sequence of pics/videos to tell the story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BSK]

Huh, never seen that before. Nature is amazing. Seems velvet sends back a whole lot more information to the brain than just pain & sensitivity. What you're suggesting (and I think you're apparently correct) would be that his brain shut off velvet life only on one side. Would explain why we sometimes see racks with one side seemingly underdeveloped, or antler tips that are blunted instead of sharp, but no apparent damage causing it. I was always under the impression that testosterone spike is what spurred velvet shed. Perhaps it's a more intricate process and the testosterone spike coincides, not causes???

I think there's a lot that goes on biologically that we don't fully understand. Without question there is a "feedback loop" between nerves and brain. One term for this is "trophic memory." How this works is feedback from nerves (such as the nerves in growing velvet) is "remembered" (chemically) in the brain and the brain can reproduce those injuries in later growth. That is why a damaged velvet antler may grow back the next year to look exactly the same way, even though no injury occurred the following year.

 

[megalomaniac]

What causes incomplete velvet shedding? Very rarely I see a buck that has patches of dried up velvet stuck to the antlers in Nivember.

 

[BSK]

What causes incomplete velvet shedding? Very rarely I see a buck that has patches of dried up velvet stuck to the antlers in Nivember.

I've seen this as well Mega, and I don't have the answer.