Man cannot outrun a wolf, but used his brain to devise methods to counteract the danger of the wolf or other creatures. A deer of comparable mental ability could do so as well. As little as 50k years ago, a mere eyeblink of geologic time, there were giant deer, sloths, sabertoothed this and that, even sabertoothed kangaroos, but they are all gone. Did their niches change? Or did man upset the evolutionary processes by his mere existence?..............
Intelligence works in some places, speed works in others, and strength in yet others. Species have evolved to find a happy medium between the three that yields optimum survival for them.
Did their niches change? Or did man upset the evolutionary processes by his mere existence?..............
Yes to both. Hunman evolution has upset many niches, although the same is true for the evolution of other predators. Species either evolve to find new niches or they go extinct. I think humans are somewhat unusual because they have had unique evolutionary pressures over the last few hundred thousand years pushing ever-greater intelligence. But there are costs and limites to increased human intelligence as well -- brain size is limited by the width of the female pelvis. If the brain is too large, humans can't be born vaginally. If female pelvises were wider, women wouldn't be able to walk bipedally.
Are you sure of that? Perhaps a wolf can outrun a man in a short sprint, but I don't think any four-legged critter can outrun a human over distance.
The problem is deer wouldn't go from dumb as rocks to human intelligence in one generation. One particular deer would be a little smarter and a little slower, and he'd be the first in the belly of a wolf. Even if he weren't slower, he wouldn't have any particular advantage over other deer, since his daily routine would still be eat food, avoid wolves, and sleep.
As little as 50k years ago, a mere eyeblink of geologic time, there were giant deer, sloths, sabertoothed this and that, even sabertoothed kangaroos, but they are all gone. Did their niches change? Or did man upset the evolutionary processes by his mere existence?
Most likely man caused natural selection to speed up a bit by eating every single creature you mentioned. Whether or not that is "upset" is up to your interpretation.
Smart deer would be really ticked off that it didn't have hands.