So I have this one axis on my place that rubbed his velvet off last year right at the end of May or first of June. We've been waiting for him to drop his antlers all winter and spring, and finally he let them go on May 5th. He held his antlers for almost an entire year.

So this does not seem normal. Has anyone ever heard of this or know what might cause it?

Tim

Axis supposedly drop their horns near their birth date.....

hmmmm,you 100% sure its the same deer?

as drop tine mentioned, they are supposed to drop their horns around the same time every year.

Seems unusual for him to have kept them that long. The ones I saw that were rubbing out in May or so were shedding their anlters in Dec or so that same year. Do you have any other bucks on the place?

Yes, we're pretty sure it is the same deer. We've compared the spots on them in a lot of pictures, but this deer threw a non-typical point on one of his antlers last year that made it easy to identify him.

We have a herd of close to 30 axis and over half of them are males. I'd say of the males there are 3 - 4 bucks that are roughly the same age and class as this one. These bucks are all estimated at 4 years old. We found the antlers off of one of the same class a couple of months ago and the main beam length was right at 25". That one has put on a few extra inches this year and is bumping 30 if not over it.

I do not have any pictures of the buck in question already uploaded on PhotoBucket, but will try to get some later this week and link to them.

Here are a few pictures of the other bucks that are growing now. They all seemed to rub out of their velvet last year in April and followed suit this year with the velvet on the last one just now drying up. I do not recall when they dropped their last set of antlers though. I think they had them until about New Year's but if I pin it down different I'll update this.











Tim

You have some very good looking axis.

Until they fall off?

Keeping the antlers a full year would be exceedingly odd. For the most part, they have their antlers for about 7 months and are growing for 5 months. I have noticed some odd things with the drought and animals that are heavily dependent on protein. I have no idea the science of it, but range condition can throw the timing off a little bit. I have seen some animals drop early b/c of drought w/o protein, but have also seen animals hold antlers late when on protein. My guess is that in poor range conditions you may have a more elongated breeding cycle on the does as it takes more cycles to get bred which keeps the testosterone levels up in the bucks. Theory on protein involvement is it keeps them in good enough shape to keep the breeding going.

That said, what I have seen is a variance of a couple months, not 5

Here are some pictures of him that should be in order over the last year. Notice the spots on his side are the same, that is how we know it was the same deer. Yes, the date and time is correct on all of the pictures too.









What was said about protein by Txnrog is kind of the way I was leaning for an explanation. Of course it would just be a guess for me. I've owned my place now for a little over a year now. The former owner told me that he brought in 5 axis after he put the fence up in 2007 or 2008. There have been very few killed in that time frame.

Since all of the other bucks had dropped their antlers already, he could have been the dominant buck and the testosterone could have come in to play.

While the drought could be a good explanation too I have permanent water available for the animals and feed year round. Last year's spring green up was much better on my place than this year has been too. I think they had a lot of good groceries last year and I know I fed them well. The feed store that the former owner used (and I do now) did not have records that he fed a lot of protein, but he feed more corn. I have reversed that ratio and while I keep the corn throwing year round from four, 1,000 pound timed feeders I have also upped the ante on protein. I fed about 7,000 pounds last year and have already exceeded that in the first few months of this year.

Thank you for the compliments and comments. Any more opinions on this guy keeping his head gear so long are welcome.

Tim

In the pic on 6-19-2012 the buck appears to have more mass than the buck in pics on 5-6-2013. He also appears to be much more mature in those pics last year than this year. He looks to be 5 or 6 in last years pics to me. Would be interesting to see what he does with antler growth this year and next year if it is the same buck.