Approximately 3,000 of these medium-size members of the deer family live in Denali National Park while tens of thousands more live in several herds distributed across Alaska and the Yukon Territory of Canada.  To prepare for the annual rut bulls shed the velvet-like covering on their antlers around the end of August or the beginning of September.  Once the mating season is over bulls will lose their antlers by the end of the year.  That’s got to be quite literally a big load off their minds.