the proteines that make up your hair and fingernails can store some color coming from foodsources.( for instance,carotene can give a nice golden shine on all types of brown hairs )but it's all genetics folks, it can be passed on through breeding, it can be a hidden factor on one deer and color another deer, just like every other natural feature on an animal.
It takes something like evolution to really make environment or habitat a key factor in color changing and if that's the fact we need a few hundred generations to study before seeing results........

F.

Probably a coincidence but we watch alot of deer offthedeck at my parentshouse. Almost everytime we see a really dark deer come out into the field it turns out being a buck.

I would be interested in seeing a scientific answer to this. We have a fairly large crowd of deer on our property, but they have limited range (about 750 acres, maybe). They also are limited in their diet, due to range, so I find it odd that the vast color range would be based on diet. I imagine that (just like humans) they may choose to eat one item or another even though several choices are available. That may explain it. Hopefully someone who knows for sure can enlighten us.

From what i understand what they eat has something to do with what color they are. From what i learned, deer eat dirt. This dirt they eat helps digest food and gives them their color. I am pretty sure one of my wildlife teachers has told me this