Not kidding. We were aware of some pretty bizarre rules and regulations in such Western states, but this one takes the cake. If you want to take your family out for a late-winter or early spring walk through the woods looking for shed antlers — heck, if you merely want to go BY YOURSELF — you must first take a mandatory ethics course in Utah. 

The course is required for anyone interested in collecting shed antlers. The training must be completed by those who intend to collect antlers between Tuesday, February 1 and April 15. And you had better not get caught outdoors without your completed and signed certificate.

Again, NOT KIDDING!

What’s perhaps even more surprising is this law has been on the books in Utah since 2009.

According to LehiFreePress, for shed hunters, authorization to harvest antlers from private property must be obtained in writing, and a certificate does not authorize someone to trespass on ground that is closed to the public.

The rationale behind the regulation is that winter time causes undo stress to bull elk and antlered bucks. This stress is compounded, state managers say, when people head to the hills in search of cast antlers. It should also be noted that licenses shed hunters can only pick up sheds. It is not legal to pick up “dead heads” or antlers with parts of the deer’s skull attached to them.

One state biologist claimed that extra stress caused by shed hunters dramatically reduced the survival rate of elk and deer. This line of thinking has been repeated in popular press, including hunting sites like Meat Eater: “Many states throughout the West have created shed hunting seasons to protect wintering animals from being harassed. These seasons only open after the worst of winter has passed and deer and elk have moved away from their winter range to higher elevations.”

Despite these claims, we cannot find any scientific studies to back up the claims. 

While it is true that winter stress can affect deer and elk (we’re talking mule deer in this situation for Utah), the stress is heavily tilted toward a lack of overwinter habitat and nutrient-rich vegetation.