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Articles: Features

Spikes, The Debate Continues ..... Part 1
by Mickey W. Hellickson, Ph.D.
updated August 25, 2009


There is no other topic like the issue of spikes to spark a heated debate at deer camp. Everyone seems to have an opinion about spikes. And although much has been written about spikes, the controversy is far from resolved and seems even more heated today. Included in Part I of this three-part series, I will define what a spike is, explain the ongoing debate, and then examine the results of various penned studies that have been completed, including the results of a recent ground-breaking study by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
 
What Is A Spike?
Let's all start on the same page by first defining what a spike buck is. Ninety-nine percent of the time a spike buck is a one-and-a-half year-old buck. It is extremely rare for a buck two-and-a-half years old or older to still have only two antler points. In fact, we have now captured over 2,000 wild bucks in south Texas, as part of various research projects at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, and we have yet to capture a spike buck older than one-and-a-half years old! Therefore, whenever someone is talking about spikes, they are talking about yearling bucks.
    
Yearling bucks are the equivalent of a young teenager. They are just getting started in life and are still at least four years away from maturity. Their bodies are only about two-thirds developed. At this young age antler growth is much less important than body growth and development. Yearling bucks are also near the bottom of the buck dominance ladder or hierarchy. The only buck more subordinate than a yearling buck is a buck fawn.
 
The Shoot All Spikes Theory
The age old debate regarding spikes revolves around the question of whether or not to shoot them. There are two general opinions. One opinion centers on the theory that spike bucks are genetically inferior. People on this side of the debate believe that the only good spike is a dead spike. They feel that by culling spikes they are improving the genetics of the deer herd because dead spikes cannot breed and pass on their "inferior" genes to future populations.
 
A second reported benefit from harvesting spikes is that these bucks can no longer compete with other deer for limited resources. On average, a buck will consume nearly one ton of forage each year of its life. If spikes are genetically inferior, the quicker they can be removed from the population the better because the forage ‘saved’ by harvesting spikes increases the amount of nutrition available for remaining deer. According to this side of the debate, managers who advocate waiting until a buck is middle-aged or mature before culling, ‘lose’ nearly one ton of forage per year per cull buck for each additional year that they allow those cull bucks to live.
 
A third reason suggested for harvesting spikes is that they are very easy for hunters to identify in the field. In fact, even the most inexperienced hunters are able to count antler points. Because spikes can be accurately identified, very few harvest mistakes are likely to occur. This is not the case when hunters are left to try to determine whether a potential cull or management buck is middle-aged or mature.
 
Lastly, some who take this side of the debate argue that if it is necessary to shoot some bucks because the deer population is too high, why not shoot spikes? Obviously, the adult sex ratio would also have to be balanced, or skewed toward bucks, to advocate harvesting spikes as a reason to reduce deer density because the quickest and most effective way to reduce deer densities is to harvest does, not bucks.
 
The Don’t Shoot Any Spikes Theory
The opposing opinion centers on the theory that spikes are not necessarily genetically inferior. Instead, it is believed that many of these bucks are spikes because of a host of reasons that have nothing to do with genetics. Most of the non-genetic factors mentioned as causes for spiked antlers involve poor nutrition. Nutritional factors include: (1) poor habitat; (2) drought conditions; (3) spikes that were born to doe fawns or yearling does that were not as efficient at producing milk as older does; and (4) spikes that were born with one or two other siblings and therefore had to compete with their twin or the other two triplets for the dam’s (mother’s) milk. The irony of these last two factors is that excellent nutritional conditions are required for doe fawns to breed as fawns and for does to have twin or triplet fawns survive. However, the fawns that are produced in these situations likely suffer nutritionally.
 
One non-nutritional factor often mentioned as a cause for spiked antlers involves a strung out or late breeding season. The result is that some does are not bred until their second or third heat cycle, 30-60 days later than does bred on their first cycle. The fawns born to these late-bred does then hit the ground 30-60 days later in the summer and are often spike-antlered the following year as a result. A severely skewed adult sex ratio is one cause for late breeding.
 
As mentioned above however, excellent nutritional conditions are another cause for late breeding because when nutritional levels are high, a higher percentage of doe fawns breed as fawns. By nature, doe fawns do not reach puberty until later in the breeding season than adult does, so doe fawns that are bred as fawns will almost always be bred late in the breeding season. And they will almost always produce spike-antlered yearling offspring as a result.
 
The Shoot All Spikes Research
The scientific basis for the Shoot All Spikes theory is rooted in research conducted within the deer pens at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area near Hunt, Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists Donnie Harmel, Bill Armstrong, Donnie Frahls, and others have been conducting breeding studies at this facility since 1973. During early research, they found that in a penned situation, spikes were inferior to fork-antlered bucks with regards to body weight and antler size through age four-and-a-half. They also concluded that the incidence of spiked antlers was hereditary. A third conclusion was that body and antler sizes were also influenced by nutrition.
 
These same biologists recently completed another long-term study on spikes with very dramatic results. They categorized yearling bucks into 3 categories: (1) yearling bucks that were able to produce forked antlers regardless of nutritional condition; (2) yearling bucks that produced spiked antlers regardless of nutritional condition; and (3) ‘swing’ deer (the largest group), which were yearlings that produced forked antlers under good nutritional conditions and spiked antlers under poor nutritional conditions.
 
Over a nine-year period (1991-99), pedigreed yearling bucks were placed in individual pens with 8-16 does to create single sire herds. Each December, all buck fawn offspring were then placed on a limited 8% protein diet to simulate poor nutritional conditions. The following October, the 5-6 yearling bucks with the best antler characteristics (e.g., highest gross B&C score) were used as herd sires for the next breeding season. These 5-6 bucks, out of a group of 19-34 yearling bucks, were then isolated in individual pens with 8-16 does per pen. Females that produced spike-antlered offspring, or that were siblings to spike-antlered yearlings, were selectively removed from the study. All females seven years old or older were also selectively removed.
 
A total of 41 single-sire breeding herds produced 217 yearling bucks during the study. Of these yearlings, 135 (62%) produced antlers with 6 or more points, while 28 (13%) produced spiked antlers. The percentage of spike-antlered yearlings declined from 33% in 1992 to only 3% in 1999, even though these bucks were nutritionally stressed! An even more amazing outcome was the tremendous increase in the percentage of yearling bucks with 8 or more points, which increased from only 3% in 1992 to 48% in 1999. This is especially astounding considering that less than 1% of yearling bucks captured in the wild in south Texas have eight or more points! Body weights also increased significantly over the course of the study. For example, average body weights for yearling bucks with 8 or more antler points increased from 117 pounds during 1992 to 139 pounds during 1999.
 
As a result of the above, they suggest that culling is most effective when nutritional conditions are poor (i.e., hunting seasons that follow drought conditions during late winter through spring). According to the theory, during nutritionally stressful times, the “swing” deer grow spiked antlers and can then be identified as the true culls that they are and harvested.
 
The Don’t Shoot Any Spikes Research
 The scientific backbone for the Don’t Shoot Any Spikes theory is based on another long-term penned deer study. This study was conducted by Dr. Harry Jacobson at Mississippi State University. His results indicated that antler size in yearling bucks was not genetically based but instead, was dependent upon the time of year the buck was born. He found that spikes, more often than not, had been born later in the summer than fork-antlered bucks. Dr. Jacobson also found that there were very few differences between these spikes and forked-antlered bucks when the bucks were all five-and-a-half years old or older.
 
A second study, based on data from the Mississippi State University deer herd, shed further light on this ongoing debate. Dr. Steve Lukefahr, at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, did not find any antler trait in yearling bucks that could be used to reliably predict antler sizes during later years. However, as bucks increased in age, their antler traits increased in how reliably they could be used to predict antler size during later years.
 
In addition, he found that the dam had more influence on yearling buck antler size than any other factor. As these yearling bucks moved into older age classes however, the dam’s influence became less and less important. Dr. Lukefahr concluded that it was best to select culls from the older age classes because inferior yearling bucks could not be accurately identified based on any antler trait. Obviously, these results directly conflict with the results from the Kerr Wildlife Management Area study.
 
Another study by Dr. Lukefahr was based on a computer simulation to determine the genetic effects different types of buck harvests would have on the deer herd after 100 generations of implementation (about 300 years). He looked at three common management strategies. The first management type simulated a harvest of 5% of the trophy bucks and 10% of the spikes. The second simulated a harvest where spikes were intensively removed. The third simulated a harvest where trophy bucks were intensively removed.
 
The first harvest type caused a small, short-term increase in number of antler points in yearling bucks. The second caused a small increase in antler points. And the third caused a small decrease in antler points. However, after 100 generations all three harvest types ended with yearling bucks all within one-half point of each other. In other words, none of the harvest strategies had any long-term effect on antler sizes!
 
Penned Study Conclusions
The compelling results of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Kerr Wildlife Management Area study clearly show that, in a penned situation where who breeds who can be chosen, yearling bucks with spiked antlers should not be allowed to breed, especially if the goal is to increase average antler sizes and body weights over time. If you are one of the many landowners with a scientific breeding permit and you are working with penned deer, it is hard to argue with their striking results.
 
Obviously, a small percentage of spike-antlered yearling bucks have the capacity to develop into trophy bucks at maturity. However, the majority of spikes will never develop trophy-sized antlers, so the best advice is to not allow these bucks to breed in your deer pens. In fact, you may want to duplicate the treatment used in the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s study and nutritionally stress your buck fawn offspring to determine which bucks should be selected as breed sires. It is also likely that the Mississippi State University study results are less applicable to south Texas because the late breeding that is common in Mississippi occurs less frequently in south Texas.
 
The bottom line however, is that the question of whether or not to shoot spikes in a wild or free-ranging situation still remains unanswered. Unfortunately, all of the above studies have one big disadvantage - they were all conducted with penned deer. Although penned deer studies have taught researchers volumes of information about deer, landowners and managers should be very cautious when trying to apply these results to wild, free-ranging deer herds.
 
Penned studies are not very applicable in the real world for the very reasons that a penned study design is chosen. In the pen, nutrition is controlled and who breeds who is also closely controlled. In the wild, managers have less influence over nutrition and even less influence over who breeds who. In addition, does obviously cannot be selectively removed based on their breeding history.
 
Another problem with penned studies relates to the effects of dominance on antler development. Although research is lacking, it has been suggested that dominant bucks, especially in penned situations, suppress antler growth in subordinate bucks. If a subordinate buck in a pen never reaches a dominant position, how do you know what his true genetic potential was? John Ozoga completed some interesting studies on the effects of density stress on deer in Michigan. He found that even when nutrition was unlimited, antler sizes and fawn crops decreased once deer densities passed a certain threshold because of the effects of dominance and density stress.
 
The only way to finally settle the spike debate is to conduct similar research with deer in the wild. Part II in this three-part series will examine results of research conducted on deer in the wild and will highlight early results of ongoing research geared toward settling this age-old debate.


Check back next week for Part 2 of Dr. Hellickson's "Spikes, The Debate Continues"!
 
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IN NO EVENT WILL WHITETAIL DOMAINS BE LIABLE TO YOU OR TO ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOSS OF DATA, SERVICE INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER FAILURE, OR PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR ANY SERVICES, WHETHER BASED ON CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY EVEN IF WHITETAIL DOMAINS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

IN NO EVENT WILL WHITETAIL DOMAINS' AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU OR TO ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY AND ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THE SITE OR ANY SERVICES EXCEED THE AMOUNTS YOU HAVE PAID TO WHITETAIL DOMAINS. You acknowledge that Whitetail Domains has set its prices and entered into this Agreement in reliance upon the limitations of liability specified herein, which allocate the risk between the parties and form a basis of the bargain between the parties. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you.

Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Whitetail Domains and its officers, directors, employees, and agents, from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Site or Services, or your violation of this Agreement. Whitetail Domains reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any such claim otherwise subject to defense by you, in which event you will cooperate with Whitetail Domains and its counsel, as necessary, in the conduct of such defense.

Links To 3rd Party Sites

The Site may contain links to third-party websites or resources. You acknowledge and agree that Whitetail Domains is not responsible or liable for: (i) the availability or accuracy of such websites or resources; or (ii) the content, products or services on or available from such websites or resources. Links to such websites or resources do not imply any endorsement by Whitetail Domains of such websites or resources or the content, products, or services available from such websites or resources. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from your use of any such websites or resources. For the terms and conditions governing your use of Partner Sites, refer to the terms of service governing those websites.

Forum And Choice Of Law

This Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflicts of law rules. You expressly agree that the exclusive jurisdiction for any claim or action arising out of or relating to this Agreement or your use of the Services will be filed only in the federal courts located in the State of Texas, or state courts located in Fort Bend County, Texas. You further agree and submit to the exercise of personal jurisdiction of such courts for the purpose of litigating any such claim or action. You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action arising out of, or related to, use of the Services or this Agreement must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose, or be forever barred. Disputes must be settled by arbitration utilizing the dispute resolution procedures of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in Houston, Texas.

Refund Policy

Whitetail Domains will not honor any refunds for any paid Whitetail Domains services, including without limitation Member account payments, more than thirty (30) days after you last submitted such payment to Whitetail Domains. Should you find the need to request a refund, please email Customer Service or call us at 1-281-633-2334.

General

You may not assign any rights granted to you or delegate any of your duties hereunder; any attempt to do so is void and of no effect. Whitetail Domains may assign its rights and delegate its duties under this Agreement in their entirety in connection with a merger, reorganization or sale of all, or substantially all, of its assets relating to this Agreement. The failure of Whitetail Domains at any time to require performance of any provision hereof shall in no manner affect its right at a later time to enforce the same unless the same is waived in writing. If a court should find that one or more rights or provisions contained in this Agreement are invalid, you agree that the remainder of the Agreement will be enforceable. The headings and captions are for convenience only and are not to be used in the interpretation of this Agreement. This Agreement constitutes the complete and exclusive understanding and agreement between you and Whitetail Domains regarding its subject matter, and supersedes all prior and contemporaneous agreements or understandings relating to such subject matter.

If you have any questions or concerns about this Agreement or any issues raised in this Agreement or on the Site, please contact Whitetail Domains at the Contact Us page.