Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn. Then always be a unicorn. 🦄 Something like that. This young male elk (Cervus canadensis) was caught on a wildlife camera at @petrifiedforestnps in October. The first set of antlers that a yearling male elk grow are single beams with typically no forks or tines. The shedding of antlers typically occurs in late winter or early spring, but early antler loss can result from sparring, nutrition, or decreasing daylight that triggers lower testosterone production which causes the connection between the antler and the skull to weaken. On the flip side, antler growth is incredibly fast. In fact, antlers are the fastest “bone”growth in the world. Just a few weeks after a white-tailed deer or elk sheds its antlers, a new set begins to grow. Adult white-tailed deer antlers can grow ¼ inch per day, whereas elk antlers grow about an inch per day. #PetrifiedForestNationalPark #PetrifiedForest #NationalParkService #nature #wildlife #unicorn #elk