The Function of the Brow-Tine in Caribou Antlers

• Published in: ARCTIC
• Main Author: Pruitt, Jr., William O.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Arctic Institute of North America 1966
• Subjects: Animal anatomy; Animal growth; Animal nervous systems; Antlers; Caribou; Manitoba; Northern; Alaska; Arctic; caribou; Rangifer tarandus; Subarctic; Tundra
• Online Access: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/arctic/article/view/66469

Observations of Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus in northern Manitoba and R.t. groenlandicus-granti intergrades in northwest Alaska, show the brow-tine functioning as a protection to the buck caribou's eyes during antler-threshing, also in the forest-tundra region against the stiff twigs of willows. Elsewhere in the arctic and subarctic, the brow-tine sometimes does not develop. The brow-tine is not fully developed until the buck's fourth or fifth year, which marks the onset of the buck's breeding activity.