The Last Rub

Here’s what can happen in the wild.  A nice sized whitetail buck has gone to the local rub. The “rub” is a tree that bucks use to rub off their velvet.

OK, here’s how this works. Most bucks (males) will develop antlers.  I say most as some do not and, some females will grow horns.  See one of my first posts to this blog, Spike Dyke.  The antlers usually start to grow near the end of the first year of life.  Antlers are not “horns”.  Antlers grow every year and horns are permanent.  Antlers are dead bone.  Horns are more like the skin material used for nails and hoofs.  As antlers grow they are covered with a very hairy skin covering that is usually colored red or deep burgundy.  This gives the appearance of felt or velvet covering.  Near the end of summer the Buck’s horn growth stops and the velvet dies and starts to shed.  To help this shedding bucks find a sapling or other soft shrub in order to rub it.  The rubbing helps the buck shed the velvet.

What is interesting is that bucks will tend to favor a particular species of tree or sappling depending on which part of the country you are in.  And, sometimes more than one buck will rub the same tree.  They seem to prefer soft barked trees.  I understand that the antlers are rather sensitive at this stage so rubbing a soft barked tree makes sense.

This poor fellow got his antlers stuck and probably starved to death.

These pictures came to me via email.  They’re tagged with www.fouraranch.com.  I checked their site but didn’t see the pictures posted there.  Give them a visit for more spectacular photos of monster trophy whitetail bucks.  They have a big protein feeder that helps the nutrition of the buck which inturn causes massive antler development.  One photo shows 4 real nice bucks snacking at the feeder at one time.