Translations:Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Antelopes - Advanced/24/en

Male fallow deer with antlers

Though there are no native deer in South Africa, the Europeans imported the fallow deer during colonial times. Deer have antlers rather than horns. While an antler is growing it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its proper size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler. Antlers shed after each mating season. Horns are not shed, but are permanent fixtures on the animal's head. Rather than a velvet covering, horns are covered with keratin (the same thing fingernails are made of).