😱🦌 THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO DEER ANTLERS! 🩸🌲
When a deer's antlers are fully grown, they are covered in a special skin called corduroy. This provides nourishment to the bone and allows it to grow rapidly. However, once the antlers have formed and hardened, the blood supply to the corduroy is cut off, the skin dies, and begins to dry out.
At this point, the deer experiences intense itching and discomfort, so it begins to actively rub its antlers against trees, rocks, and any other objects to remove the dead skin. While this process may seem terrifying and even bloody at first glance, it is actually painless for the animal. In fact, the deer actually enjoys it.
After the corduroy completely disappears, the antlers become hard, durable, and shiny. It is with these "battle" antlers that males engage in combat during mating season to prove their strength and win a mate.