As we all know, wildlife frequently makes use of verbal communication to communicate with other wildlife and even people.
Coyotes howl sometimes, and certainly we hunters depend a lot on hearing a turkey’s gobble.
While it’s less obvious, deer also communicate by making several sounds, and that’s especially true during the breeding process.
Bucks and does will often communicate with each other with bleats and grunts, and at times a snort will be used to alert other deer of possible danger. According to a study done at the University of Georgia in 1988, researchers were able to determine the 12 calls whitetails make most often. Those vocalizations include the bawl, mew, bleat, nursing whine, and a number of different types of whines and snorts, including the common grunt-snort.
While we have all probably heard some of those sounds, especially if you hunt deer, more often than not, however, it’s what we see and not what we hear.
I’m referring here to a deer’s “sign language.”
Deer frequently use a variety of nonverbal forms of communication to get their message across to other deer and even people.
For example, my wife and I were watching a doe and her fawns out in our backyard feeding, and the doe began bobbing her head, followed by some slow foot stomps. The bobbing head is an attempt to get multiple angled looks at something it considers suspicious. The foot stomping is a way of alerting other nearby whitetails, in this case the fawns, of an impending need for a retreat.
We soon saw the reason for the nonverbal signs; another doe stepped out of the nearby thick wooded area and walked towards the fawns and doe. I’m sure those of us who hunt have all seen the foot stomping and head bobbing on more than one occasion.
What’s happening with a deer’s ears can also tell us a lot. Ears suddenly going forward means the deer is alert and looking at something intently; it may be danger or it’s just paying very close attention to something. On the other hand, when a deer has its ears pinned back, it’s likely displaying aggression towards another deer and usually occurs when feeding or during the rut.
A deer’s tail also tells us a lot about what a deer may be thinking. A deer’s tail wagging left and right while running away is a signal to other deer to retreat from nearby danger. The flaring of the tail hairs is another sign the deer is uneasy. The more the hairs are raised, the more likely the deer is concerned.
Repeated tail flicking can mean a deer is trying to get rid of pesky insects, but repeated, erratic tail flicking can also be a sign of distress and danger detection and a warning to nearby deer.
Of course, there are a lot of other nonverbal forms of communication that deer use, and a couple of those are especially obvious as the breeding season gets underway. Buck rubs become very common, and deer hunters are always on the lookout for them. While the rub on a tree is very obvious, it’s also true that deer leave their scents on the rubs, and that is a form of communication to other deer.
Scrapes, or those areas raked up by a deer’s hooves, are also telegraphing information to other deer, but to us hunters as well.
These are just some of the more subtle signs to be looking for when watching deer, and apparently all of these little moves mean something to other deer, but they might also be alerts that deer hunters should be watching for as well.
