THE SUPER GENE

Can Biologists Produce Monster Bucks?

EDITOR'S NOTE: What role does genes play in your local deer herd? Can the introduction of a monster buck into a herd assure quality deer for years to come? The answer to these and other questions will definitely surprise you. If a Boone and Crockett buck was introduced into your deer herd, would he produce super bucks? Could you buy a monstrous-sized Alberta buck and bring it to Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas or Alabama and expect the buck to breed with does and produce offspring with heavier body weights and larger antlers? Through selective breeding, could you implant does with embryos that carry super genes to produce offspring that become bigger bucks with wider racks? To get the answer to these questions and many more about genes and their potential, I talked with Dr. Harry Jacobson from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. One of the nation's leading deer researchers, Jacobson currently studies genetic effects on deer populations.

Question: Looking at all the genetic engineering studies concerning humans and livestock, do you believe biologists can produce a monster buck with extremely large antlers?
Answer: You can select individual animals for genetic traits and produce a large-antlered animal after many generations. But producing that type of animal requires great effort on the breeder's part. To develop this animal, you'll have to work with penned deer. Perhaps you can catch wild does and impregnate them with embryos from another sub-species in a different geographical location. But you still must put the doe in a pen, confine her for a certain time and then release her. No one will find this method of raising deer with large body weights and heavy antlers cost-effective.

Question: Therefore, even if you go to the trouble of trying to create a deer with genes for a large rack and a heavy body weight, you still may not pass those traits on to your herd if the native herd doesn't have good habitat and the proper food?
Answer: You're exactly right. Deer develop the physical characteristics they exhibit in different geographic areas for specific reasons. For a deer to be all he can be, he must be matched with good habitat in the region where he lives.

Question: If we take a 3-year-old buck weighing 250 pounds with a 20-inch inside spread of the main beam that has 12 points, 8 inches or longer, and release him into a wild population that hasn't produced a buck of that caliber before, does research indicate that the buck's offspring will exhibit heavy body weights and large antler development?
Answer: No research at this time proves that the introduction of a big buck, like you've described, into a wild herd will produce offspring that exhibit his body size or his antler development. Presently, we are conducting studies that may provide us with better information on this subject for the future. Perhaps we may introduce a trophy buck into a herd and produce offspring that will inherit the trophy buck's antler development and body weight. However, by adding this trophy buck to a wild population, you may introduce a gene detrimental to that deer population in addition to the genes for a large body weight and heavy antlers. I consider the introduction of bucks from one region and one deer population into another area like dealing with fire. Fire used in specific ways can be beneficial, but fire also can have a damaging effect.

Question: If we release a super buck into a wild deer population, what effect will the native doe's genes have on the offspring produced by that buck?
Answer: The doe carries 50 percent of the genetic makeup of the offspring. To produce bucks with large antlers and heavy body weight, the doe must have those same ancestral genetic traits.

Question: What can hunters do to have trophy bucks in the areas where they hunt?
Answer: You must allow the bucks to reach maturity. Regardless of where you live, the area may hold a deer population with bucks possessing superior genes and the ability to produce large body weights and heavy antlers. But if outdoorsmen harvest the bucks before they reach the age of 6, when white-tailed deer mature, the bucks won't realize their maximum genetic potential. Once a deer reaches this age and becomes a super buck, he must remain in the herd to produce offspring that may demonstrate his same genetic potential.

TOMORROW: WHAT IS A TROPHY BUCK?