buck460XVR
New member
Better access to food and medicine has certainly played a role in the process.
Most certainly. One reason young girls and boys mature at an earlier age than they did years ago. Just another sign that Mother Nature is a lot more complicated than most folks think. Scientist believe non-African modern man is a hybrid between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Most all of us Caucasians have about 2% of Neanderthal DNA. Still has nuttin' to do with big deer.
Food and health does play a big part of the overall size of deer within their genetic sub-species, but it does not explain why deer in certain Northern Latitudes have a overall larger average body size, even tho food is only readily available for a short amount of time and the harsh winters make it difficult to stay healthy and find water that is necessary for them to live. This is where Bergmann's rule comes into play, along with evolution. Larger body size means less surface to mass ratio and less heat loss......thus larger bodied animals stay warmer in cold weather and vice versa. This is why are Key deer so small, when they have great weather and available food/water all year round. Their small bodies lose heat more rapidly and thus, they stay cooler which is more important in their environment than staying warm. Same goes for Texas deer. One could force feed a buck Key Deer all the food and minerals it could stand, and still not end up with a deer that weighs as much as a Wisconsin Buck. Yes this is genetics, but genetics that have been formed thru evolution. Now one can assume that with the advent of deer farming, the transporting of deer all over the country for breeding and genetics, that many of the evolutionary traits of the local deer herds will be lost. Look at what's happening out West with the interbreeding of whitetail and mule deer.