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White-tailed Deer Management Strategies and Domestication Processes

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Abstract

Today, people in the U.S. commonly engage in mutual relationships with white-tailed deer (WTD) in manners consistent with those that ultimately resulted in the domestication of animals in the past. Using a wide range of media depicting perspectives of sport hunters, biologists, ecologists, and game managers this paper explores: 1) the influence of anthropogenic environments on WTD behavior, 2) ‘game’ management and the ability to create valued demographics, and 3) the selection for increased antler size in farmed WTD. This study demonstrates that in order to gain a more accurate understanding of domestication, analyses should focus on the evolution of mutualisms between people and animals. Insights gleamed from this analysis also contribute toward our archaeological understanding of prehistoric animal domestication.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Melinda Zeder, Dolores Piperno and two anonymous readers for their comments on earlier drafts. Thanks also to Kerin Schwartz and R. Muti for their help in making this paper possible.

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    Timothy C. Messner

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Messner, T.C. White-tailed Deer Management Strategies and Domestication Processes. Hum Ecol 39, 165–178 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-011-9380-4

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