Moose are the largest living member of the deer family and fittingly have the largest set of antlers. Moose antlers are usually paired and shaped like the palm of a hand with outstretched fingers, thus the expression palmate.
After a male moose reaches one year of age he starts to grow antlers that increase in size (becoming more elaborate with more points and heavier) for each new set of antlers he grows until he reaches his prime. After a bull moose reaches his prime the antlers start to recede each year until the moose dies. North American Moose have larger antlers than their European relatives. Every year the cycle is the same. In the spring antlers begin to grow from the skull covered with a tissue called “velvet”.
By September the growth has completed and the velvet dries and falls off. Moose will often aid the removal of the velvet by rubbing their antlers on trees and shrubs (on occasion they’ll eat the velvet too!). The continuous rubbing on trees, combined with the dried blood and dirt will give the Moose Antlers the brown color hunters are accustomed to seeing in the fall.
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