Caribou, Deer, Elk & Moose - Sounds Wild
Finding and Keeping Antlers

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Finding and Keeping Antlers

On a summer day near Ketchikan I'm cutting across a big muskeg meadow and find a beautiful three point antler, shed last fall by a Sitka black-tailed deer. Like many people, I save antlers I find. I'm not a dedicated horn hunter - as many such people describe themselves - although they're actually antler hunters, but I do save them when I find them.

In Alaska it's legal to keep naturally shed antlers, and the bones and skulls of terrestrial animals. I've found beaver and porcupine skeletons, and saved the skulls, which actually look pretty similar. In many cases the skeletons show no sign of scavenging, although there are usually small parallel scratches indicating mice and voles chewed on the bones a little for the calcium.

Land ownership - where you find it - is important. It's illegal to take anything out of a national park. So a moose antler shed on the Gustavus forelands is legal to take home, but if it falls off a mile away in Glacier Bay National Park, it has to stay there.

Beachcombing is a little different. In most coastal areas of Alaska it is legal to keep the bones of marine mammals, but the parts should be registered with the appropriate agency that manages the animals, either the Fish and Wildlife Service, or the National Marine Fisheries service. It is not legal for non-Native people to collect baleen.