Mule Deer Ears

[PrimitiveTim]

At 4:30 in this video there are some mule deer and I've seen lots of mule deer since being out west but these out in the desert of SoCal seemed to have especially large ears.  Is there some kind of adaptive reasons to the desert that they might these really large ears like for keeping cooler or something like that?  I love this footage cause it shows how nimble deer are even on cliffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i8ljJhgDzk

[Zuma]

I would agree on the heat exchange.
Just look at the size of your ears compared to an eskimos
Jack rabbits are mostly hot dry weather creatures too.
Zuma

PS What about Key deer?
Perhaps it's average temperature and air flow?

[PrimitiveTim]

I think key deer are just a subspecies of white tails so their ears aren't real big.  Also, in the keys they're staying in the dense woods where night time temps will get down to the low 80s even during the hottest part of the year and that's cool compared to nighttime temps in the desert.

[Zuma]

Right on-- More an enviromental feature
than a North vs South geographic one.
Zuma

[JW_Halverson]

You coulda given a little more camera time to the owl girl.












Just sayin'.

[Blackcoyote]

radar dishes, man I couldn't imagine the hearing they have - western mule deer are bad enough!