SUMMARY: We assessed the hydration state of antlers and its effect on antler mechanical properties compared with wet femur. Red deer antlers were removed from the head at various times, from a few days after velvet shedding till late in the season, and weighed weekly until after casting time. Antlers cut just after losing their velvet lost weight rapidly in the first few weeks, then settled down and changed weight very little, the latter changes correlating with air relative humidity. Antlers cut later showed little weight change at any time. The water content of cortical and trabecular parts of the contralateral antler was assessed after cutting. Most of the weight loss was from the cancellous, not the cortical, part of the antler. Wet and dry specimens from the antlers, and wet specimens from deer femora, were tested mechanically. Compared with wet bone, wet antler had a much lower modulus of elasticity and bending strength, but a higher work to fracture. Compared with wet bone, dry antler showed a somewhat lower Young's modulus, but a considerably higher bending strength and a much higher work to fracture. The impact energy absorption of dry antler was much greater than that of wet bone. In red deer, the antler is effectively dry during its use in fights, at least in southern Spain. In addition, dry antler, compared with ordinary bone, shows mechanical properties that suit it admirably for its fighting function.

Dominance hierarchies in groups of social animals can be based either on asymmetries that are important for agonistic interactions (such as body mass) or on more ‘conventional’ cues (such as age), which are respected despite having little relationship to the animal's fighting abilities. We investigated how social dominance is influenced by age and body mass in a herd of 29–39 beef cows over a 10-year period, focusing on all levels of the dominance hierarchy (individual, dyadic and group). The results demonstrate that age prevails over body mass in the structuring of the dominance network in beef cattle. At the individual level, path analysis confirmed that the dominance index of a cow was more strongly associated with her age than with her body mass. At the dyadic level, age superiority had a stronger influence on the direction of social dominance in pairs than body mass superiority. Older cows were dominant in 73.6% of those dyads studied, even when the younger cow was heavier. At the group level, the strong influence of age on dominance produced a hierarchy that was very stable and strongly transitive. Our findings show that beef cows, for the most part, do not use their physical strength to attain dominance over older, but lighter, herdmates. This results in a stable age-based hierarchy, which might serve a universally shared function that promotes the smooth functioning of the herd and/or the expression of experience by older cows. Among the theoretical models of conflict resolution, the system most closely resembles the partial bourgeois evolutionarily stable strategy

Social dominance is widely known to facilitate access to food resources in many animal species such as deer. However, research has paid little attention to dominance in ad libitum access to food because it was thought not to result in any benefit for dominant individuals. In this study we assessed if, even under ad libitum conditions, social rank may allow dominant hinds to consume the preferred components of food. Forty-four red deer hinds (Cervus elaphus) were allowed to consume ad libitum meal consisting of pellets of sunflower, lucerne and orange, and seeds of cereals, corn, cotton, and carob tree. The meal was placed only in one feeder, which reduced accessibility to a few individuals simultaneously. During seven days, feeding behavior (order of access, time to first feeding bout, total time spent feeding, and time per feeding bout) were assessed during the first hour. The relative abundance of each meal component was assessed at times 0, 1 and 5 h, as well as its nutritional composition. Social rank was positively related to the amount of time spent feeding during the 1^st h (P = 0.048). Selection indices were positively correlated with energy (P = 0.018 during the 1^st h and P = 0.047 from 1^st to 5^th) and fat (only during the 1^st h; P = 0.036), but also negatively with certain minerals. Thus, dominant hinds could select high energy meal components for longer time under an ad libitum but restricted food access setting. Selection indices showed a higher selectivity when food availability was higher (1^st hour respect to 1^st to 5^th). Finally, high and low ranking hinds had longer time per feeding bout than mid ones (P = 0.011), suggesting complex behavioral feeding tactics of low ranking social ungulates.