01 April 2012

Shed-hunting with dogs

This is a sport I had not heard of until reading about it in the StarTribune today:
Josh [Miller], of New Richmond, Wis., and [his dog] Easton are at the forefront of what in recent years has been a fast-growing hobby, and now is a fast-growing nationwide sport: shed hunting.

Not sheds as in buildings where lawn mowers are stored. But sheds as in antlers dropped each year in winter by whitetail bucks.

"Hunting'' for the dropped antlers, or sheds, in spring as snow melts has become increasingly popular among sporting types, as deer numbers have increased...

"I took Easton along with me for the exercise, and while I looked for sheds, he kept finding tennis balls,'' Josh said. "He's a nut for tennis balls, and he seems to find them everywhere. That's what got me thinking: Why couldn't I train Easton to find sheds for me?'' ...
Here's how the competition is conducted:
To simulate the smell during competitions, a product called Rack Wax is rubbed onto the bases of antlers. Six antlers are then planted in three separate fields, each measuring about 15 acres.

Points are awarded for each rack found by a dog, and each time a rack is delivered by a dog to its handler. The quicker this occurs, the higher the score awarded.
Despite my thousands of hours in the woods, I've only found one "shed," probably because most of my woods time is in late summer/autumn, by which time scavenging animals have found the antlers first.

7 comments:

  1. That actually sounds like a lot of fun. What a good way to get out in the woods with your dog. (I'm really hoping this isn't an April Fool's article. Even if everyone else thinks it's silly, I'd do it!)

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  2. This is a very bad idea. Countries like Norway (think reindeer) don't allow taking antlers because they provide an essential nutritional component to the ecosystems where they drop. Millions of creatures depend on them and removing them does great harm. I think you should post this and try not to attract more people to a sport that harms our already stresses natural world.

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  3. Maybe this explains how Arthur 'Two sheds' Jackson got his nickname.

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    1. I had completely forgotten about that sketch -

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLjS3gzHetA

      Thank you!

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  4. Harvesting sheds has no negative impact on ecosystems. Sheds are bone with virtually no nutritional value and are only nibbled on by rodents. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the woods recognizes that due to record deer populations, there is no shortage of "bone" material lying about. Winter kill deer provide food for scavengers...bones from the carcass contain marrow and are significantly more nutritional than antlers. I've found hundreds of moss covered antlers that have been lying around for more than one season. I'm not familiar as to why sheds in Norway are off-bounds...but I'm guessing there are more political reasons than environmental reasons for this. At any rate, the environmental constraints in their ecosystems are markedly different then North American ones and so comparisons don't carry over well.

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