With the consistent amount of encounters I have had with deer I decided I wanted to take this time to research something that I could attempt to view in the deer's behavior. What I researched today is the communication aspect between individual white-tail deer. When you first talk about deer communication you must realize that their is a hierarchy based on dominance. Like many animals that live in herds or packs or groups, there is a dominant female and male and works down the ladder from there. Fawns begin to show dominance in as little as four weeks after birth. The way in which deer retain their positioning is to fight their opponents.
Deer are certainly not known for their vocalizations yet they play an extremely important part in the daily life of a deer. One of the sounds a deer is known to make is a grunt. Depending on the context surrounding the usage of this sound, deer could be saying a number of different things. During the rut bucks use the grunt while following a female, challenging an opponent, or during a fight. Does use the grunt to announce to their fawns that she has returned for them. Grunts are much lower pitched noises but when a fawn becomes scared or separated from his mother the young deer lets out loud bleat. This bleat is much higher in pitch and can be heard far away. The loudest and most common noise deer make is the snort. Similar to blowing your nose, this sound signifies danger to the entire deer population that can here the sound. I here this sound very often when I am in the woods, normally it is because the deer have seen me or caught my scent.
The second communication technique deer use is body language. Because deer cannot rely on their voices to communicate the way they use their body to convey what they are saying is key. From a flip of the tail to how their ears are laid back can mean a lot to the deer around them. The white tail of the whitetail is used a ton to tell other animals around them what they are thinking. If a deer sticks the tail and the surrounding hairs straight up, the deer is announcing danger and telling those around to be cautious. Does use the tail as a device for the fawns to follow. Dominant does and bucks both use what is known as the hard stare. This glare is used to tell those around that trey mean business. If the adversary thinks that he or she can compete they will fight, either with their antlers or forward hooves. Over the years and countless hours I have spent viewing deer, their is no question that they do not always need a form of communication to understand the others, they have a sense of what they other is thinking. They often move and act as one even without obvious, physical communication.
The final way that deer communicate is through markings. These markings can either be physical changes in the environment or chemical changes. For the physical part there are rubs and scrapes. Deer may make hundreds of rubs each fall during the rut. Most of these rubs occur on small saplings. These rubs allow the deer to strengthen the same muscles the bucks will use to fight with during the rut. Rubs can be seen all over the edge of forests. It looks as though the bark has been shredded around the level at which a deer's head is at. In my room I have a pair of antlers that still holds the bark of the trees the buck was rubbing five years ago. Deer also deposit scent from their forehead scent gland that gives the rub twice the communication effect. As the rut continues to come closer mature bucks make a very large scrape in the dirt beneath an overhanging branch. They often break the branch above them using their antlers and teeth and then wipe all sorts of chemicals on it to mark their territory. Next, the big bucks scrape a patch of soil until it is just loose dirt. The deer mark this area again using multiple scent glands and urine. Wherever any deer see this they are sure to come check it out.
Even as we as humans become so distant from many types of face to face communication thanks to advancements in technology, deer have mastered the art of communicating to others they cannot see. Although they can communicate using audible sounds and body language, deer leave messages in the dirt and trees for deer to see for possibly months. I hope to be able to take this knowledge gained from this reading and apply it to my observation whenever I see deer in the field or markings of their previous presence.
Leonard Lee Rue III's
Way of the Whitetail
