A while back, while driving down a little-traveled dirt road  in Wind Cave National Park, I happened upon a strange sight. A white-tailed deer with only one  large antler on top of its head. I’d seen this sort of thing before on TV and knew that it could happen, but hadn’t seen it in real-life until now.

It got me thinking about the wildlife here in the Black Hills and eventually my mind wandered (as it often does) through this line of questions. “Why is one antler missing?” “What about the Black Hills critters with horns?” “What’s the difference between horns and antlers?”

They might sounds like silly questions, but c’mon, admit it – you’ve wondered the same things too….maybe.

So, I did a little checking with South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks and the National Parks Service and here’s what I found out.

HORNS

• Permanent. Never shed or dropped off unless by injury to the animal
• Continue to grow throughout animal’s life. If lost, do not regrow
• Made of a bone-like core with an outer sheath of keratin (the same stuff fingernails are made of)
• Do not branch. True horns end in one single point
• Males or females may have horns
• Black Hills animals with horns: bison, bighorn sheep, mountain goats

ANTLERS

• Not permanent.  Shed yearly, usually during the winter season; one antler often drops shortly before the other (hence the Wind Cave buck)
• Made completely of bone; an extension of the animal’s skull
• Branch in different directions and can end in multiple points
• Generally, only males have antlers. Females typically do not.
• Black Hills animals with antlers: white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and the stray moose that may occasionally wander through

While this is all fine and dandy, there is one common Black Hills resident that doesn’t completely fall into either of these categories – the pronghorn antelope. As far as headgear goes, the pronghorn really is sort of an oddball.

Its “horns” are made of the bone and keratin combo just like traditional horns. However, they also shed annually and regrow each season, similar to antlers. Male pronghorns also frequently have horns that branch, ending in more than one point.

So, although “horn” is part of the animal’s name, and most people consider them to be horns, I’m not quite convinced. For now, it seems to me that the best answer is somewhere along the lines of “hontlers” or “antlerns.” Whatever they are, I think they’re pretty impressive.