At the end of the summer, the antlers ossify, and elk scrape the velvet off on trees. During this period, the antlers are soft, cartilaginous, and covered in fine hair-known as “velvet”-and they contain reproducing stem cells. Adult male elk, or bulls, grow their antlers between April and August. Unlike horns, which are permanently attached to an animal’s head, antlers regenerate annually. The animals eat government-funded alfalfa pellets, living in a carefully managed symbiosis with a town that presents itself as a frontier outpost, and which has a median home price of three million dollars. Most of the antlers come from the National Elk Refuge, an expanse of hills and meadows on the outskirts of Jackson where roughly eight thousand elk spend the winter. Jackson’s trademark is a town square with four archways each arch was made from some fourteen thousand pounds of antler. A large arch of intertwined elk antlers greets passengers as they arrive at the local airport, and, in town, antler chandeliers hang from tall ceilings at a high-end furniture store. In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, some antlers are easy to find. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
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