Antlers Are Not Naturally Brown

Only deer have antlers. Chinese water deer and the Musk deer don’t grow antlers at all, and both sexes of reindeer or caribou grow them. In all other deer it is the males that have big racks of antlers, while females may have small points.

Antlers grow from permanent outgrowths called pedicles of the frontal bone on the skull. When antlers start to grow they are covered by a layer of velvety skin. Triggered by increased testosterone levels, the velvet falls off and hangs in tatters, and the deer rub the velvet off against trees, and the tannin the wood turns the white of the bone brown.

Amazing – who ever thought that the colour of the antlers is from staining?