About Ben G. Expertise Any small-game hunting relative to the Eastern United States or big game hunting including whitetail deer, wild boar, and turkey, including calibers, equipment, techniques, whitetail deer rut, etc.
Experience I have hunted whitetail deer since I was 10 years old. I began hunting wild turkeys and wild boar shortly thereafter. An outdoors columnist for a small, weekly newspaper and have written for two print monthly hunting magazines and a variety of online publications.
Organizations Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, National Rifle Association, National Wild Turkey Federation
Question After seeing some deer close by my camp, I heard shortly after this weird sound that sounded like someone trying to make a loud imitation of a fierce wind - brief, husky, forced. Was this a deer or what?
Thanks
Answer Hello, Rob.
Condensed version: I believe that's exactly what it was!
Book version: Your question doesn't make it clear whether you deer hunt (or are otherwise around deer a lot), so I don't mean to be telling you something that is common knowledge, but just from the way you described the sound, it sounds like a common, everyday deer "snort," which is the deer's alarm sound. It's a sound they make through their nose. It sounds exactly like you described, and may also include a high-pitched whistling sound.
When a deer sees, or smells, something that they believe to be danger (and if they passed close by your camp, chances are very good that they caught a whiff of human scent), they'll snort to warn other deer that might be in the vicinity that danger is imminent. Often, they snort many times. If they're close to you or whatever the danger is they perceive, they'll run out of range a bit and often stop and snort several times before leaving the area.
While the deer's snort warns other deer of danger, it also warns other wildlife . . . for example, squirrels will often stop what they're doing and freeze on the side of a tree trunk when a deer starts to snort until they have observed the area and determined whether or not there is enough danger to send them scurrying through the treetops. (Deer and squirrels actually work very well in this manner. Squirrels, in return, often bark to warn deer of danger. In woods where deer are plenty, a squirrel barking often means a deer is in the vicinity. A lot of deer hunters mistakenly believe the squirrel is barking at the deer because it is alarmed at the deer. But actually, the squirrel saw the hunter slip into the area and knew he was still present but had determined that he did not pose a danger and had returned about his business, and then when the squirrel saw the deer, was barking to warn the deer of the danger present).
While the snort warns any deer in hearing distance that danger is present, deer also have a more lasting way of warning their comrades of danger. Often when they're snorting, you'll see them stomping their front hooves. They have a gland in these hooves that deposits scent into the ground as they stomp, and when other deer happen by, they'll smell that scent and they, too, will be aware of danger in that particular area.
Sometimes, but not often, deer use the snort as a sign of aggression, usually towards one another, but (rarely) towards larger animals such as humans (this is almost always in cases where a doe has a fawn nearby and feels that the human is threatening her young). In these cases, you'll see the deer's ears flatten back on its head and their eyeballs roll back into their head.
The snort is by far the most common sound that a deer makes.
