• TerminalEncounter [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I mean, we very directly teach them that if they go certain places they're liable to be killed and they go others they'll stay safe. It's just evolution in motion. Guess it's cool that people see these animals aren't just meat with a nervous system but clearly have some kind of conscious awareness of what's safe and what isn't.

    • supersaiyan [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I wonder if the there elks are passing this information to their offsprings?

      • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Probably not with language obviously, but just showing them where to go and when is enough for any animal to learn by observation.

        • Bloobish [comrade/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Fawns would follow their mother and learn opportune eating and hiding strategies, those that didn't learn would likely just end up on the hood of someone's range rover.

    • JamesGoblin [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It appears that these with different behaviour - say even for just a day or two late - simply didn't survive to "skew" the statistics.

    • Frank [he/him, he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This sounds more like culture than evolution. They have to learn where the danger is, then transmit that information across generations and to other deer. It seems unlikely that ever individual deer is figuring this out on their own.