Black-tailed deer face, with antlers in velvet

This black-tailed deer was trying to get a good meal of grass seeds while numerous cars full of people were stopping to watch him in Yellowstone National Park. Deer and other related animals, like elk and moose, grow new antlers every year. During the time the antlers are growing, they're covered in a fuzzy skin called velvet. When the antlers are done growing, the velvet dies and the deer will sometines be seen rubbing its antlers against trees or shrubs to get the velvet to come off. The velvet might hang on in long strips and you can sometimes see blood on the antlers where the velvet still had a good blood supply. After the breeding season, the antlers will fall off from the base and the male deer will be antlerless until the next spring into summer, when the process starts over again. Female deer don't grow antlers, but the related caribou do have antlers for both sexes.

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