ELK 101
Why do animals like to eat elk antlers?
Photo: Zack Clothier
by Vivien Felker
If you’ve ever felt like shed hunting is a foot race to beat toothy critters to the first “brown” shed antlers of the year or watched a dog chew an antler with fervor, you’ve probably pondered the reason behind animals’ affinity for chewing on them.
Turns out, chewing antlers is known as osteophagy (the chewing of bones), which animals engage in for numerous reasons. One is that antlers are like a multivitamin to the animals that consume them. Various studies have found they contain proteins such as collagen, as well as essential minerals including calcium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorous, sodium, potassium, barium, iron, aluminum, strontium and manganese. Chewing a hard antler also provides additional benefits to rodents, whose teeth never stop growing and require abrasive edibles that wear them down to keep them from curling back into their heads. However, they've got plenty of competition out there. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports bears, foxes, opossums and otters have also been known to chew on an antler or two.
Our canine companions enjoy chewing on antlers as well, although it’s hard to know whether dogs chew on antlers as a source of those proteins and minerals or just for the pleasure of gnawing on something. Buck Bone Organics, a family-owned antler-chew business based in Bozeman, Montana, sells about 300,000 pounds of wild-sourced antlers each year. CEO Jackie Steigleman says most are elk antlers purchased from shed hunters and commercial antler buyers alike, and demand for antlers sliced into dog chews has grown rapidly for years.
Unfortunately, if chews, supplements or other products derived from antlers are sourced from game farms, it presents dire disease concerns for wildlife, particularly for spreading Chronic Wasting Disease, which has run rampant through farmed deer and elk and often finds its way into nearby wild herds. So if you do purchase antler products, make sure you know the source.
Steigleman says aside from providing great mental stimulation for dogs, chewing on antlers packs a nutritional punch.
“Like a protein shake for dogs,” she says.