Amazing impracticality: why do deer throw off and grow horns every year

Deer animals are easily distinguished by characteristic horns on their heads. Males of this family grow chic horns throughout the whole year, and eventually get rid of them. The next year, everything repeats again. In order to grow such huge horns, as, for example, in an elk, an animal needs to spend a lot of energy and eat well. Why did nature create such a strange mechanism?

All representatives of the deer family, and this is 51 species that lives on our planet, have horns. Only males have horns, with the exception of reindeer, in which females are also endowed with horns. In the wild, deer live in America and Eurasia, as well as in a small region in northern Africa.

Deer horns are bone formations in the upper part of the skull, which, as a rule, are symmetrical. They develop from cartilage, and subsequently become overgrown with bone tissue and become hard. The growth of horns begins at the beginning of the season, in the spring. When the horns are still young, they are soft, covered with fluff and pierced by a network of blood vessels. Then a kind of molting occurs when the fluff comes off the horns. As the blood vessels grow, it becomes smaller, bone tissue hardens, turning horns into a formidable weapon.

It is worth noting that not all types of deer are thrown off the horns, and this process is associated with the habitat of the animal. Reindeer, who live in a hot equatorial climate, do not throw off their horns, and animals of tropical latitudes throw off their horns irregularly, every few years. But just the deer, living in the temperate zone, get rid of the unnecessary part of the body annually.

Scientists have found that horns grow better in those deer that receive proper nutrition. That is, the cultivation of such jewelry on the head annually requires males certain efforts. The better the male eats, the larger and stronger his horns will be by the end of the season, by autumn. Indeed, just in time for this period, they should reach their maximum size and strength.

The period of deer breeding occurs in autumn - the beginning of winter. At this time, the males are fighting fiercely, figuring out which one is worthy to become the father of future offspring. Just to clarify the relationship and need horns. The older the male, the more powerful and branched horns adorn his head. And after the breeding season, deer of temperate latitudes, such as elk, European deer, red deer, sika deer and many others, drop horns as unnecessary.

Researchers believe that the main reason animals get rid of horns is their excessive severity. Reindeer northern latitudes are larger in size than their more southern relatives, respectively, and their horns have significant weight. This circumstance makes it difficult to move through the winter forest with windbreaks and large snowdrifts. Getting rid of the horns occurs in winter or early spring, depending on the species.

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