Shooting Times & Country Magazine
The Field Guide To British Deer
BDS 60th Anniversary Edition In this excerpt from the 60th anniversary edition of the BDS’S Field Guide To British Deer, Charles Smith-jones considers the noise they make
Deer are generally quiet animals. Alarmed deer generally choose to depart unobtrusively but may issue a vocal warning to others of a potentially dangerous intruder in their vicinity. An observer who has been detected by an unseen deer may at least be able to identify it by the sound it makes.
The males of most deer species make characteristic calls during the rut. Females and young will maintain contact with each other using various bleating or piping calls.
Red deer
This species is characteristically silent apart from during the rut. During the rut the stag roars, especially around first and last light. The sound resembles the bellow of a bull but with a deeper intonation, and usually ends with several grunts. Woodland stags often give a single resonant groan at long intervals. During the rest of the year the stag may make a rare warning bark if alarmed, and grunts when troubled by flies.
The hind likewise makes little sound except for a gruff bark to her calf when returning to it. She may also make a more frequent nasal call, and utters a crisp warning bark if suddenly disturbed or unsure of a potential threat that she cannot identify.
The calf has a high-pitched bleat and screams if alarmed.
Sika
For most of the year this species is generally silent unless alarmed. The rutting call of the stag is impossible to confuse with any of the UK’S other deer. It consists of a carrying whistle, rising to a crescendo and descending again to a concluding grunt, usually issued three or four times in rapid succession. The stag then remains silent for the next ten to fifteen minutes and often for up to half an hour.
A rutting sika can be difficult to locate by its call because of these long silent intervals. (The more frequent calls of a rutting red stag or fallow buck make them easier to pinpoint.) This sound is heard chiefly at dusk or in the early morning and has been compared to the sound of a gate swinging on its hinges.
Another type of rutting call, usually made by a stag accompanied by hinds, is a single drawn out querulous whistle rising to a peak,
tailing off and ending in a grunt, and is uttered every two or three minutes. A stag challenges another with a sound rather like the “raspberry” made by expelling air through closed lips. A low bleat or grunt is uttered in the vicinity of a hind in season.
Both the stag and hind when alarmed make a short, piercing whistle, sometimes ending in a grunt, often repeated several times with a space of some fifteen to twenty seconds between calls. The hind makes a similar sound when guiding its calf though undergrowth. It is used most frequently in summer and can carry distances of up to half a mile. Stags have been heard to make a peevish squeal, especially during high winds.
When in heat, sika hinds have a special plaintive and subdued bleat which appears to be irresistible to an unmated stag. The calf bleats in a similar manner to a fallow fawn; the sound can be imitated by blowing on a blade of grass held between the thumbs.
Fallow deer
This is another species that is generally quiet when adult. The typical voice of a fallow buck during the rut is a rather fast and continuous groaning or belching with a marked rhythmic intonation. In still weather it can be heard half a mile away. A doe, and particularly one with a fawn, gives a crisp and resonant bark as a warning call if disturbed; a buck may utter a similar bark especially during rutting time. The doe makes a whining bleat when communicating with or searching for her fawn.
Fawns communicate with does using a plaintive nasal bleating “mee-ulk” which increases if they are pestered by bucks.
Roe deer
A buck challenging an intruder utters a loud, staccato “bo… bo… bo” bark similar to that of a collie dog. Both buck and doe can make a more drawn out “bao…bao…bao” warning bark, often uttered as the animal takes flight and which coincides with the animals’ bounding pace. The bark of the buck is gruff, shorter and less continuous than that of the doe which is higher pitched. Barking often continues as the animal moves off into the distance. As a general rule, the deeper the call, the older the deer.
During the rut the buck grunts when pursuing a doe or a rival. The doe calls to her kids with a highpitched “pee-you” or “peep peep”. When in oestrus she makes a faint and high-pitched piping note which the buck can hear at a considerable distance and to which he usually responds immediately by coming in search of the doe.
A doe hard pressed by a rutting buck and unready to mate utters a loud, two-tone distress squeak: “pee-ah”. Kids make a shrill, lamblike bleat.
Muntjac
Both sexes make a single, loud and fox-like bark, less gruff than that of a roe and repeated at intervals of four to five seconds over long periods, sometimes for up to an hour. They do this when separated, disturbed, excited, advertising their presence to others of their species, or when the doe is in oestrus.
Muntjac also grunt and make clicking sounds. They also make a piercing and distressing cry if in extreme difficulty. Does and fawns will squeak if disturbed. A fawn separated from its mother has a characteristic and pathetic bleat, uttered in a very much higher pitch, and squeals and bleats to attract its mother if in danger.
Water deer
Largely quiet. Both sexes utter a harsh bark similar to that of the muntjac, but with a more rasping edge. Barking is often carried out when alarmed and may also serve other purposes. It seems to be more prevalent during the summer which suggests that it might also have something to do with maternal behaviour.
Rutting bucks make a variety of clicking or chittering clicks and squeals, and courting animals may squeak. If caught or trapped, an animal will scream loudly.