Originally Posted by glew22

The reason that these deer have bigger bodies and antlers is because the further north you go the bigger their bodies get. Antlers are just an extension of the skeleton, and the rule goes with bigger bodies you see bigger antlers (look at moose/elk, etc). The underlyign reason here is that in cold climates you want small surface area relative to body mass to conserve heat, and in the south you want a lot of surface area relative to body mass to keep cool. TX deer seem to be the exception to this rule in regards to antler growth, and it's unknown why that is.