Bad Hair Day

 

This animal looks a bit raggedy so you might think it has the mange.  It doesn't.  But it's definitely scruffy as the animal is beginning to shed its fur.  Antlers are first; winter coat is next.  As the days grow longer the additional sunlight triggers hormonal changes in whitetail deer that bring-about these changes.  For boy deer testosterone levels gradually rise.  As a consequence antler growth begins and for all deer the gray winter coat, with its thick guard hairs, begins to molt.

Hormonal changes bring about a molting process twice a year and deer alternately grow a faded gray coat consisting of longer guard hairs and replace it with the ruddy red-colored coat of summer.  Better-suited to reflecting the heat of the sun the deer really stand out when they're gathered in a bright green hay field in July.  The summer coat will only last about three months before the critter begins to regrow the extra layer of longer, stiffer, hollow hair over the softer hair closer to the skin.  

Until the transition is complete the local whitetails are going to continue looking a bit raggedy.   

Hair everywhere.