geweerd

Geweerd is a Dutch adjective meaning “having antlers” and is used mainly in zoological discourse to describe mammals in the deer family that bear antlers. The root is gewei, the Dutch word for an antler, and geweerd functions as a descriptive label for an individual that possesses antlers.

In zoological usage, geweerd describes cervids such as deer, moose, and related species whose antlers are temporary bony outgrowths that are grown anew each year and shed after the mating season. In most species, only males carry antlers, though exceptions exist (notably the reindeer or caribou, in which both sexes may have antlers). Antler formation, growth rate, and shedding are influenced by age, nutrition, and genetics.

In Dutch wildlife literature, geweerd is used in field guides, species accounts, and natural history texts to distinguish antlered individuals from those that are antlerless. The term is descriptive rather than taxonomic and does not imply a specific lineage beyond bearing antlers.

See also: antlers; cervids; deer biology; gewei.