How Key deer communicate

Unlike roosters at the Winn Dixie parking lot, Key deer tend to be a quiet lot. They just don’t say much. So it takes a lot of careful observation to begin to understand how they communicate. Here is a primer on “Key deer speak” based on multiple years of observations.

Let’s start with fawns: they have a singular sound expression – a bleat that resembles a sheep’s but is higher pitched. They use it in multiple situations: when they feel lost, looking for their mother, or when hungry. Curiously, we have found the mother most often ignores those calls. Instead of rushing up to comfort her child, Key deer moms let their kid roam around until it finds them on its own, and they (the moms) are the ones to decide when it’s feeding time. They do this with a repeated coarse grunt. While this grunt sounds the same from different does in the same group to us humans, the fawns know exactly what their mom’s grunt is and rush to her upon hearing it. The does also use the same sounding (to us humans) grunt to gather their fawns if they perceive danger or when they want to move to another area.

Older Key deer, both does and bucks, use a similar sounding (to us humans) grunt to signal displeasure with another deer. For example, a deer lying down will be approached by another deer who wants to use the same spot to lie down or eat grass. The bedded-down deer will give out a short “get away from me!” grunt, which is usually respected (this happens most often with bucks). We have also commonly observed a non-voice type of communication in the same situation: the standing deer starts whacking the lying-down deer with one of its front legs. After that, one of two things happens: 1) the bedded deer gets up and leaves the spot; 2) the bedded deer is stubborn and, after 5 or so whacks the interloper gives up. The Key deer have yet another sound for the same situation, which we have witnessed only from big, dominant bucks. It is a prolonged sneer or hiss – “sssssssssssss” – and is much more serious than a grunt. We’ve come to understand it means “Get the f— away from me or I’ll trash you ass!”. Thankfully, it is not used very often.

Then there is the sound for alarm. It is a powerful snort, done by expelling massive air through the nostrils. It is intended for the entire surrounding deer group and always gets everybody’s attention. We have witnessed it used when, for example, a dog barks nearby, or an unknown animal such as a cat is spotted by one of the deer. In the cat (or similar) case, the snorting deer also usually stomps the ground with one of its legs while watching the intruder. We have also witnessed the same behavior exhibited when a (usually young) deer encounters a new, strange, unexpected object – like an upside-down flower pot in a place the deer has been in before. Or when a fawn encounters a human for the first time. My husband has an especially memorable story about the “snort alarm”: he was doing yard work while a bunch of Key deer were resting under the trees and in the grass areas nearby. He had a sneeze coming and, not wanting to scare the deer with a loud WAAAAAAAH through his mouth, suppressed it and let a huge snort come out his nose instead. This caused a Key deer stampede worthy of a Wild Kingdom video! Many of the deer did not return for a day afterward. Guess our snorts sound like Key deer snorts!

Through the years we have observed many other types of communications among the Key deer, most of them being through body language rather than voice. For example, two deer encountering each other may briefly touch their snouts. This happens between both sexes, and even adults and fawns (see photo), and is a display of acceptance and friendliness. As an even greater  communication of friendship, pairs of deer will start to energetically lick each other’s neck. This behavior is called “social grooming” by scientists, or “allogrooming” by the real science nerds. To learn more about Key deer and our organization, please visit our website.