Evolving Bucks: Just for Fun!

Field and Stream magazine contained a story of three bucks who were found entangled and drowned. Sad, interesting, perhaps even poetic (so the article says). But, does this scene justify this speculation? “It’s kind of neat to see evolution right there in front of you,” says Tonkovich. “This is Darwin stuff, what we learned in biology 101-those that are strongest and smartest will do the breeding. In today’s deer management world, our interest is in population dynamics or growing big bucks and age structures and so forth, but this takes you back to the basics of deer behavior and, even more simply, evolution and Darwin’s theory of natural selection.”

In response to this assertion, a friend of AITSE, Laszlo Bencze, jokingly said, “I believe that deer are poised on the edge of an evolutionary precipice. The tripartate antler linking behavior is clearly the result of an evolutionary adaptation towards antler loss. As this behavior spreads throughout the population, antlered dear will steadily diminish in numbers until only non antlered deer remain. Non antlered deer are obviously better adapted to swimming behavior and will spend more time in lakes and pools which will in turn impel the acquisition of further aquatic traits. The net result of this evolutionary process may well be the development of some sort of fresh water seal.”

Only time will tell if Laszlo’s prediction is accurate.