It is amazing to think of the amount of energy these bulls expend regenerating their antlers each year. Only the males have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each winter. The largest antlers may be 3.9 ft long and weigh up to 40 lbs. Antlers are made of bone which can grow nearly an inch per day. While actively growing, the antlers are covered with and protected by a soft layer of highly vascularized skin known as velvet. The velvet is shed in the summer when the antlers have fully developed. Bull elk may have eight or more tines on each antler; however, the number of tines has little to do with the age or maturity of a particular animal. The formation and retention of antlers is testosterone-driven. After the breeding season in late fall, the level of pheromones released during estrus declines in the environment and the testosterone levels of males drop as a consequence. This drop in testosterone leads to the shedding of antlers, usually in the early winter.

This bull is clearly not impressed with my presence as it grazed its way through a meadow near Tower Falls in early July.