quiksilver

Animals evolve. I think we've conclusively established that. For example: Due to advances/changes in medicine/nutrition/genetics, humans are getting taller, and our brain size has grown. It's a scientifically proven fact. 4 million years ago, a five-foot tall human with a 500 cc brain cavity was above average. Now, we have an average height of close to 6' with a 1200+ cc brain. Obviously, there were other changes that came along with the evolution - skeletal, muscular, ligamentous, evolution of the senses (more taste buds, increased # of rods/cones in the eye, receptor cells in the nasal passages, highly adapted nervous system, etc...)

My question is: How are Whitetails evolving? ... And if they are changing, how fast are they evolving?

Are they getting taller? Faster?Are their brains getting bigger? Are their senses becoming more keen? Is selective breeding (whitetail farming) having an impact? Is Vomolfaction a newly-developed characteristic?

Since whitetails tend to turn over generationally much faster than humans, are they evolving at an accelerated rate?

I know these questionsare probably best-suited for a wildlife biologist, but I know we have a few who frequent this site, and I'm curiousto see how my intuition stacks up against the actual scientific data.

I know this is way out there, but thanks in advance.

Red Lion

Interesting question. I know that I have no idea. Maybe we have a wildlife biologist on here that can better answer it?

mtfreezer

From what I understand, humans grew larger brains as a result of a higher protein diet. Eating meat mostly. With today's high protein crops, I think that wildlife are or will slowly get larger brains as well. I have heard numerous people say that deer never used to look up, but it happens all the time now. There is guy that lives not to far away from me that puts a bright colored teddy bear at the base of the tree. He said that it keeps the eyes of the deer on the teddy bear and not looking up. Anyway, I think that deer and other animals are constantly evolving. I don't know if they are getting taller or faster. It probably all goes back to the quality of the food they eat and their ability to adapt to achanging enviroment. If they didn't evolve, they would go extinct. They sure have adapted well to living in cities. On a side note, a friend of mine tackleda doe in his back yard when he was drunk a few years ago. The deer we have in my area are big but if you drive a couple hours to the Black Hills of South Dakota then they are smaller. I have heard a couple different theories on the smaller deer in the Black Hills. Some people think that it is the food and others think that it is because smaller deer survive better in the woods. I think it is the food they eat myself. Not much good stuff to eat in the Black Hills.

KSbowman

To know this it would take years and years of research at least to know exactly how they have changed. Evolution deals a lot with what makes an organism successful. Like you said we have evolved fairly fast and there are obvious characteristic changes. We have changed so much because we have had to in order to succeed. With our population growing the way it is your average Joe wont cut it in the "corporate" world. Look at the younger generations, they are constantly getting smarter and smarter because of what we know and what we teach them but also because if they dont know a lot compared to others they will not be as successful in life (what our society has molded to mean successful).
Whitetailed deer were probably quite a bit different 200 yrs ago. Say for instince the area of KS that i am from. In the 50's there werent hardly any deer in the area and now there are some world class bucks that roam around all over the place (and guys would pay thousands to harvest deer we have). I have had the priviledge of talking with my grandpa when he was alive about a lot of the wildlife when he grew up. he would always tell me how if you saw a couple deer in a day that was a good day, now if i see a couple of deer a day i think man the deer really arent moving.
I have noticed that in our area (river bottom) a lot of the bucks grow massive brush type antlers that are not really wide. This is because when deer where evolving in our area ,which is really thick and brushy in some areas, they have been more successful (meaning reproductive success) than other bucks. They match their surroundings a lot more and can escape predation easier in thick cover; where as if you goto theprairie area surrounding the river bottomyou will see a lot more bucks that have really wide racks because they live in open terrain and their racks can be seen easier and do not obstruct them when moving through cover (because its open prairie w/fewer trees). So if you step back and look whitetails have come a long way in a short time, keeping in mind the geographic location. I will have my Biologists degree in the spring and have learned a good deal about evolution and behavior, so i can assure you i'm not just pulling stuff out of my rear end. However I am no where near an expert on the subject, but I have come to understand evolution A LOT better in the past couple of years with the higher classes i've taken. If there are any other Bio's who can offer more please do, this is a fascinating topic! And by the way Great post!!

il coyote

Honest question:

If a deer becomes nocturnal for whatever reason, or simply stops traveling by a stand that it's busted hunters in multiple times, would this be considered evolution?

beaverdamva

I have been thinking about deer evolution lately. I have been thinking along other lines however. I think that the two largest factors in deer evolution right now are not nutrition or habitat. I think they are HUNTING and AUTOMOBILES. Are deer going noctural because it is learned or is it genetic? Do deer that are not active during the dayand get shoot not pass on that habit and deer that are more active a night do pass on this trait? Is it a mix of both genetic instinct and learned behavior?

On the cars, are deer getting better at crossing roads? If so is it learned behavior or genetic instinct or a mix of both? Will deer eventually start looking both ways before crossing the road?

Considering all the strange studies out there that get funding one wonders if someone is doing a study on this.

jonnyslim

Excellent Post! But i have no idea if deer have changed in the past couple centuries. It will be intrestingto see some of the opinions on this thread.

quiksilver

Ilcoyote, I'd say that's more learned behavior. Evolution would be more of a physical change. For example, mule deer haveenormous ears - and I'd be willing to bet that's a direct result of thousands of years of predation upon those individuals who can't hear as well.

Were deer always nocturnal? If not, then I'd think it's fair to say that increased night vision is an evolutionary change, which is possible.

But, a deer who can see well in both daylight and dark, learning to travel primarily at night - that's an example of a deer learning to adapt to survive - just like the developed habit of "looking up." An evolutionary change is something that can't be "learned,"like growing bigger ears or the ability to see in the dark.

quiksilver

I guess increased night-time travel could be a result of a genetic change - imagine if there were a particular group of deer who, for some reason or another, had an eye dysfunction that inhibited their daytime vision (maybe their iris wouldn't close far enough to block out the daytimesunlight, causing them to spend their days hiding in the shade, to keep from being blinded by the sun). As a result, this group would tend to travel/feed primarily during low-light hours, and overnight. Obviously, these traits would indirectly lead to this group being tougher to hunt, given their low levels of daytime movement.

In that particular area, hunters would harvest a higher percentage of the deer with excellent day-vision, leaving the nocturnal herd to reproduce and pass on that genetic material.

I guess that would be a plausible scenario where hunting could speed the evolutionary processes by leaving deer to reproduce that are genetically programmed to be tough to hunt.

Interesting to think about, eh?

il coyote

That's what i was getting at.I wasn't real curious, I already had an opinion. Evolution takes many, many years to happen, while a learned behavior is more 'instant'.

My next question: Is the recentexplosion of countless gadgets, gizmos, and other products said to make us better hunters actually making us better at hunting the HIGHLY EVOLVED whitetail, or have hunters in general become less skilled, thus becoming more reliant on these products?


The reason I ask is becauseI think that a lot of people confuse evolution with adaptation.