SNAPPED: A buck’s best spring accessory

PARK CITY, Utah — In and around the Trailside neighborhood, free-roaming deer, like the one pictured here, are sharing yards with residents this and most weeks every year. If you look closely at the bucks right now, you might notice fuzzy velvet-covered nubs on their heads. That’s new antler growth — and it’s happening fast. At peak growth, mule deer antlers can add nearly an inch a day, making them one of the fastest-growing tissues of any mammal. The soft velvet covering supplies blood and nutrients to the growing bone, and by late summer the full rack will be complete.

According to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, what deer eat this time of year directly influences how big those antlers get — so the spring greens popping up around Park City are doing more than just looking pretty. Submit photographs you’ve snapped to tips@TownLift.com.