Vehicular Homicide of Deer???

[LilKim]

this is a weird question ... and i'm not sure if this should be in the "Zoology" section but anyways ...

I live in Northeastern USA and I spend ALOT of time driving! And, during my travels I often notice numberous dead deer on the sides on the highway. However, the weird thing is that I've only noticed Doe's (female deer).. an rarely do i ever see a bucks (male). Of course I'm not stopping, to determine the sex of the deer I just look for "antlers" on the head. (only males have them ... right?)

So i'm trying to figure out if only females are being killed? (or possibly young bucks that don't yet have their antlers yet?) is this a population thing? (are there more female deer than male deer?

Well, I guess I could probably look this up and figure it out... but you guys are sooooo brilliant.. that I figured that I'd ask here first...

thanks!
- KIM

p.s. cute pics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer

[mith]

Maybe people take home the males?

[kjle]

That's a possibility, though kinda gross. But keep in mind that bucks do shed their antlers each year. During the months of January to April is the most likely time they are without. And, since this is spring time, and mating season, there may be more of them, or they may be more courageous. I don't know, this is just a hypothesis.

[AstusAleator]

Also, there tend to be less males than females in general. You'll generally find one male for several females.
Male deer have more selective pressure on them, from hunters and because competing with other males decreases their fitness.
If you were from the Northwest, I'd tell you that wolves tend to target males more than females.

[mith]

Totally off topic but I heard that in some species the female chromosome will attack the male chromosomes resulting in some populations of 99% female and 1% male. An example given was butterflies.

[sachin]

Totally off topic but I heard that in some species the female chromosome will attack the male chromosomes resulting in some populations of 99% female and 1% male. An example given was butterflies.

Never heard of that....

[AstusAleator]

Wow, neither have I. That's crazy.

[mith]

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articl ... id=1462075

We got an exerpt about it from some book published in 1990...but I forgot the name