In a previous post I spoke to a friend who has witnessed Not Deer during their time working in the US: “Nope, I don’t like that”: Encounters with Not Deer. But what even is a Not Deer?
Not Deer are unusual in that they aren’t defined by what they are, but by what they aren’t. It’s in the name. Is that a deer? Nope, that’s not a deer. The Not Deer. They are defined by their sense of general wrongness, perhaps falling into a sort of Uncanny Value whereby they’re similar enough to deer to be familiar, yet different enough to definitely not be deer.
There doesn’t appear to be a singular defining physical feature in describing the Not Deer (other than their similarity to deer). Ren spoke of Not Deer with eyes pointing forwards like a predator, or the presence of threateningly large teeth. Others speak of deer with too many legs, legs which are too long and/or spindly, or deer making jerky and unnatural movements. The Not Deer are often described as seeming to have more intelligence than your average deer, watching you with intent.
Unusual appearances in deer can somewhat be explained away through diseases. Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is also known as “Zombie Deer Disease” due to the unusual physical and behavioural changes which is causes in deer; unusual movements, spindly limbs, and a “blank stare”1. The presence of tumours can also cause unusual appearances in deer. However, those who have seen both deer with CWD and Not Deer reportedly state that the two are clearly different2.
Still, Not Deer remain a popular cryptid online. People will often post alleged trail camera footage of deer-like creatures, leading to heated discussions around the existence of Not Deer. These will inevitably get shared and re-shared around the internet, raising awareness of the creature.
Some people claim that Not Deer shouldn’t be a distinct type of cryptid at all, and instead simply a type of Skinwalker. Perhaps the ill-defined nature of the creature is part of what makes it so popular. It’s easier to assign different traits to the creature when there’s no solid definition for it beyond “it’s not a deer”. The Not Deer has begun to expand across America. Where once it was largely an Appalachia-specific phenomena, reports crop up from all around the USA.
Are Not Deer a danger to humans? According to Ren and others online, yes. The presence of predator-like eyes and sharp teeth suggests an animal which intends to hunt for its meal. The creatures are reported to still be pack animals like their standard deer counterparts, increasing the chance that such a creature could take down a human. Due to their teeth differing to those of a normal deer, perhaps Not Deer attacks on humans are being misattributed to other predatory animals.
In some Not Deer stories, people have identified the creature as such because it was seen to be eating meat or gnawing on bones. Interestingly, this is normal deer behaviour. Deer will scavenge on any carrion that they may come across, and can get a beneficial dose of calcium from eating discarded bones3. If the only “unusual” trait is that the candidate deer is eating a carcass, then you may well have a regular deer scavenging carrion rather than a Not Deer consuming it’s prey.
Where do Not Deer come from? Unfortunately, this is unclear. If we are taking the Skinwalker train of thought, then the creature would be a magical shapeshifter who has chosen to take the form of a deer. If we believe that a Not Deer is its own independent creature, it is much harder to say. I have not come across any tales of a Not Deer forming a pack with regular deer, nor captive/managed deer herds ending up with a Not Deer. This suggests to me that the two might be independent (albeit similar) species, rather than it being the case that a regular deer might somehow become a Not Deer. If Not Deer travel in packs then logically there would be a breeding population capable of maintaining their numbers.
Perhaps the reason why Not Deer encounters appear so frequently is because of their similarity to a very common animal. Perhaps it is because normal deer are weird creatures, especially when they get sick. Or perhaps it’s because they are breeding and their population is increasing, spreading outwards into the rest of the US from Appalachia. We may never know.
References
- ‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans on The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/22/zombie-deer-disease-yellowstone-scientists-fears-fatal-chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-jump-species-barrier-humans-aoe ↩︎
- An Appalachian Urban Legend, the Not Deer on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Appalachia/comments/i12r12/an_appalachian_urban_legend_the_not_deer/ ↩︎
- No, Deer Are Not Strict Herbivores. They Eat Birds on A-Z Animals https://a-z-animals.com/animals/deer/deer-facts/deer-eat-birds/ ↩︎
One response to “What’s a Not Deer?”
[…] In this post, I borrowed my friend Ren to ask about their encounters with the unexplained during their time working in the US. In this interview we discussed their experiences with three different creatures. This post starts us off with a discussion of Not Deer. […]