A Shed Hunt
The woods in the foreground had many deer beds. Deer size depressions in the snow hold great mystery..when did the deer lay there? How long? What did it hear and see from its bed?
I’m not the only one interested in white tailed deer.
But it was only one who took a hike yesterday to find antler sheds…me. While there are many others who wait for the shed hunting season, this is not my normal practice. While many hunt antler sheds for new information on where the big buck may be found next hunting season, others seek them out for the thrill of finding them. Yes, there are shed collectors. I went mainly for the walk. A shed antler would be a surprise bonus.
Antlers are amazing objects. They are amazing in symmetrical design, amazing in composition. Antlers are true bone. They are the fastest growing organ in the animal family and can grow several centimeters each day. Antlers in velvet are warm because each antler has a series of veins, vessels and arteries to support antler growth. The life blood of the buck flows through them. They grow all summer. As summer comes to a close, the antlers begin to harden and calcify. By early fall the buck rubs off the velvet leaving the hard and pointed tines of antlers ready for sparring with other bucks for the late fall, early winter “rut” or mating season. Deer hunters spend a lot of money to obtain some.
Woods hold much more than the white-tail. Many small things are found in deer habitat, like this beautiful shelf fungus growing on the bark of an Aspen. Finding small things like this fungus is one of the reasons a hike in the woods is never dull.
Have you had the thought that antlers are true wonders yet? They are. After the mating season the buck may have a broken tine, even one missing, though, usually neither happens. Antlers are extremely tough and so solidly attached bucks occasionally become entangled when their antlers lock while sparring. They do not come off even with the extreme weight of another buck on them.
Yet when February and March show on our calendars, the once solidly attached antlers are shed or cast by the buck. They fall off! It happens every February and March. Now be amazed…or wait…think about what they look like, think about the fact that each year they grow bigger as the deer grows older. How much bigger depends on the nutrition the buck has. Think of it, shed or cast, new growth, velvet, the rub, solid weapons for fall mating, then shed in late winter, regrowth in the spring. Amazed yet? We’ve only been considering the deer’s antlers!
Not much remained of this deer skull. I found a shed antler against a tree just off the trail where this skull was lying. When a deer dies in the forest, nothing is wasted.
It gets better.
We cannot fully discern all the moving parts of a white-tailed deer. We cannot comprehend fully what a complete package white-tailed deer are for life in a forest, a prairie, a wetland, and even farm fields. Eyes, ears, ability to scent danger and much more, fleet of foot, a coat which regenerates before every winter. Still, we’ve only pondered surface truths about the white-tail.
White-tails can help us with something else. Considering the amazing physical qualities of the white-tail prepares us to contemplate something of great personal significance to both of us. We have an eternal soul. Antlers are not an accident. God makes them new each year. The insulating qualities of white-tail fur-no accident. They shed their winter coats every spring and another one returns in fall. White-tails do not go to the store for new coats…they grow automatically. Those cloven hooves bring us to a passage from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk.
This verse is filled with hope. This is for our souls.
You and I need strength for each day. Strength to face temptation, strength to live each day and face the problems which will come. For each, our strength is not enough.
God is our strength. Look at the white-tailed deer. The same Creator who made the marvelous white-tail and gives them strength made you and I. Where does our strength come from? Our strength comes from the Lord.
Habakkuk 3:19
The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
More than amazing…this is eternal hope.
This shed or “cast” antler had been chewed by mice and other rodents. It was not shed this year. The tines were chewed off. It’s still there, because I can’t get nutrition from an antler like those rodents that share the woods with the deer. They need it more than I.
Warm temperatures make soft snow. Soft snow makes beautiful white-tail hoof prints.
(In case you wonder…. The hike was fantastic…a do over.)
This oak leaf coated with freshly frozen ice after the previous warm day was “Hike Frosting.” Examine the photo closely-there are many beautiful details.