If I could just....

Fun Fact Friday: Low on Calcium? Chew on This

Story By Nancy Patterson, Public Affairs Specialist, BLM’s Greater Sage-Grouse Rocky Mountain Region

What made this highway of tiny tracks? Where are they going? Wait! What’s that sticking up out of the snow? It’s an antler! But what’s an antler doing in the Big Empty? You might think it’d just be a cool decoration for your house. But this antler is a crucial source of nutrients for small animals of sagebrush country.

Antlers grow on members of the cervidae, or deer, family. Except for caribou, only males grow antlers. In the sagebrush ecosystem, two of the cervidae you may see are mule deer and elk. Deer antlers are made of bone, extend from their skull, and fall off every year. Young males typically grow spikes and single-pronged antlers. As the buck or bull ages, their antlers grow in mass and more tines develop.

It take a lot of energy and calcium to grow a set of antlers. All summer long in the high country deer graze on vitamin-rich vegetation, which gives them the strength they need to produce their annual antlers. The developing antlers are very tender. They’re covered in velvet, which provides protection and nutrients to the growing bones. As fall approaches, the bone hardens and the velvet gets itchy. Deer rub it off on branches to polish them for the rut, their mating season. With their handsome set of antlers, bull elk and buck mule deer are ready to display their might and prowess to competing males and attract the attention of doe deer and cow elk.

Unknown (via frowzey)

Comparative study available via the order of the scales on the pine cones as an introduction to the study of the leaf position 

By Braun, Alexander, 1805-1877

Mexican proverb (via aytenuous)

Literally lol and it’s kind of the worst sometimes