![]() ![]() David Hirth and Dale McCullough, two University of Michigan researchers, studied alarm signals in white-tailed deer to determine the evolutionary reasons why whitetails snort and flag their tails.Īfter two years, they had data on 223 doe groups and 109 buck groups. In fact, bucks often behave in a selfish manner to lower the “fitness” of their competitors by not snorting and instead, slipping away quietly. Bucks snort less frequently because there is no evolutionary benefit behind warning non-related competitors of potential danger. Therefore, does are more likely to snort because this increases their own evolutionary “fitness” by increasing survival of their relatives, the other members of the family group. Buck groups, more often than not, are made-up of unrelated individuals. ![]() Snorting happens often in does because group members are more likely to be related. #SNORT WHEEZE SERIES#This second type involves a series of slightly longer snorts. Often, the deer is out of sight from the intruder. The second type of snort occurs much more often and is given by a deer when it detects danger at a relatively safe distance. The first type of snort given by deer startled at close range is a single, very short, explosive snort at the moment they begin their escape. Two types of snorts are produced by whitetails, each one under a different situation. The snort is not actually a call, but a sound that results from the vibration of air being forcibly passed through the nasal passages. The snort, the same sound I heard, as a boy squirrel hunting, is the most recognized of the whitetail’s many vocalizations. Within these two groups, deer use a variety of vocalizations, body language, and chemical signals to communicate with one another. Except for the breeding and fawning seasons, they live in either closely related family groups of does and their fawns, or in bachelor groups of randomly related bucks. Why do white-tailed deer snort and flag their tails? Do does flag their tails or snort more often than bucks? Can does identify their fawns by sound alone? What are the social functions of the different deer vocalizations? These are just some of the questions scientists have tried to answer in their pursuits toward deciphering the many different vocalizations and forms of communication made by deer. Just as I saw them, they turned, flagged their white tails and bounded up and over the ridge. I was surprised to see two does staring back at me from the next ridge. 22 rifle and looked for the source of the strange sound. All of a sudden I heard a loud snort, startling me and causing me to take a step backwards. I had just entered a small woodlot and was searching the treetops looking for a bushy tail. I was seven years old, squirrel hunting on my grandfather’s land in north-central Iowa when I heard my first white-tailed deer snort. ![]()
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