ORIGINAL: SWThomas
ORIGINAL: Jimmy S
ORIGINAL: SWThomas
Deer size is a product of environment. The reason the deer are larger in certain areas is because of agriculture. If they have the food to support such growth, they will grow.
I respectfully disagree. We have deer here in northern New England that are some of the biggest deer in the country. Yet there is very little agriculture. They food source is whatever is availeble in the deep woods.
I agree with Redclub...The deer up north are usually always bigger because they have to be big to survive the nasty, cold winters up here.
The genes are then passed on....
They must be finding something in the deep woods that contains plenty of the nutrients they require. Good genes will only take them so far and then they need the nutrition.
Of course they need nutrition and they find it in the deep woods, not in agricultural areas. There are no fields, farm land, farm crops etc, which to me is agricultural land. Plus they have inherited genes necessary to grow big enough to survive the northern winters.
If I wanted to shoot a big bodied deer, a deer that dresses well over 200 pounds, I would head north. My chances would be much beter hunting Maine than South Carolina or Florida. Even though the deer in Maine would be struggling to find feed in 4 feet of snow with temps well below zero.