Chapter 12, December Summary and Analysis

In this chapter, the writer introduces the most basic principle of ecology which is the home range, or the area that each animal uses on a daily basis for food and shelter. By following tracks, the narrator finds that the deer move around in an area about a mile long to find food from their bed. A person can tell a lot about an animals feeding habits for the season by looking at the plants around them. If a deer has feasted mostly on corn, then the height or length of the branches on trees will be longer. This is a good indicator of whether another farmer has protected his corn crop or not as a really hungry deer will go up on its hind legs to each branches from a tree if it is really hungry.

There are...