By Ben Rodgers
Editor
SUAMICO – Large, abundant and especially active right now, this month’s Animals of the Month are no strangers to Wisconsin.
The four white-tailed deer who call the NEW Zoo home are especially active right now with the alpha male Roebuck just having shed his velvet and the rut setting in.
Antler velvet is like a skin that coats the males’ antlers as the bones and cartilage develop new antlers each year.
For a few days in late August or early September, the male sheds the velvet as new antlers are ready for the most important time of the year, the rut, or mating season.
“It starts to itch,” said Trish Schuchart, zookeeper, of the velvet on antlers. “The velvet will dry up. The hormonal message will tell it to stop the blood supply because the antlers are done growing.”
Now is the best time to visit the deer because the harem, or deer group, will be particularly active during the rut, she said.
It’s also a great opportunity to get a close up view of a male deer.
“The bigger the rack, the better, because they will have to fight off males who want their female,” said Trish Schuchart, zookeeper.
Roebuck is the dominant male and Scarlet is the female in the harem. They are joined by RJ, their son, and another male, Bam Bam.
“Roebuck is going to make sure RJ and Bam Bam stay away from Scarlet,” Schuchart said.
The whitetails are not on a breeding recommendation and Scarlet is on birth control, but they still maintain their wild instincts.
“They’re really a good group,” Schuchart said. “But this time of the year, if he feels they’re a threat to his legacy with her, he will make sure to keep them at a distance from her.”
Other Cervidae (the deer animal family) that call the NEW Zoo home live in an environment with much less drama during mating season.
Todd and Hummus are two American elk, who share their space with two American bison.
Because it’s just the two of them, the only animals that need to watch out for Todd during mating season are the bison, who give him plenty of space, Schuchart said.
Because elk are much larger, so are the racks of antlers males don.
Schuchart was able to weigh one side of Todd’s antlers when they fell off.
It hit 12 pounds on the scale, which is nearly 25 pounds of antlers in total. They can even grow up to 50 pounds in total.
“In the wild, it’s hard to find antlers,” she said. “Lots of people hunt for them, but the rodents find them and chew on them because there’s lots of calcium in them, but we don’t feed them to any critters here.”
At the NEW Zoo, antlers are used for enrichment activities for other animals and also for the antler arch that welcomes visitors to Northern Trails section of the zoo.
Those who want to visit the deer and elk to see them in the rut need to be aware that as of Sept. 1, the NEW Zoo moved to fall operating hours.
The zoo is now open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Oct. 31.