When the adult Caribou return from the north in August, the antlers of
all are still in the velvet. However, completely hornless does are not
particularly uncommon at this season; in Charles Schweder’s opinion,
some remain permanently in that condition. Hornless does are reported in
various forms of Caribou or Reindeer in both hemispheres (Jacobi, 1931:
48). I saw also a few one-horned does on the autumn migration. In a
single group of three adult does photographed at close range on August
28, one was hornless and another one-horned (fig. 11). A considerable
proportion of my other photographs of Caribou groups at this season show
one or more animals with a single antler or none. The hornless condition
appears to be astonishingly more common in Keewatin than in regions
farther west. Stefánsson, whose field operations were chiefly in
northern Mackenzie and southwestern Franklin, remarks (1913b: 151) on
having found, at any season when Caribou are normally horned, just three
hornless animals among a thousand at whose killing he had been present.
Murie (1935: 20) speaks of having observed only one hornless doe in
Alaska, in September.
By late August the bucks’ antlers have attained nearly their full
growth, though still in the velvet. The largest head of the season was
obtained on August 22. Its measurements were: right antler, in straight
line from base to tip of longest prong, 995; left antler, 980; distance
between main tips of the two antlers, 620; brow tine, from base to upper
tip, 335; to lower tip, 290. For the older bucks, the principal period
for shedding the velvet is September 10 to 20, although Charles Schweder
once observed a buck that had completed the process by September 1, and
Fred secured one in that condition on September 6, 1947. In Alaska old
bucks shed the velvet more or less regularly in September (Murie, 1935:
26). Sick or wounded animals are said to retain the velvet for an
indefinite period. For example, a buck secured on September 29 had some
velvet hanging in shreds from the tips of its antlers, and it was found
to have been shot in the mouth sometime previously. The younger bucks
and the does lose their velvet somewhat later than the older bucks (say
toward the end of September). In a doe of September 21 (fig. 21) the
antlers were covered with velvet and still had soft tips. A young buck
of October 2 was just shedding the velvet.
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