Deer are popularly considered to be majestic animals. There are myriad species of deer found across the world, including the elks, moose, water deer, and reindeer. The deer species are identified using their habitats. Unlike antelopes that are not dangerous and can be domesticated, deers have antlers that can be great self-defense weapons, especially when combined with their heavy build.
However, compared to other wild animals, deer do not make it to the top of the list when it comes to animals that are the most dangerous in their habitat. However, they have a way of surviving in the jungle.
Like it the case with many animals, most people do not know the proper collective nouns to use when referring to a group of deer. There are specific common and collective nouns used to refer to a male deers, a female deer, a baby deers. Keep reading to find out the correct English names to call a male, female, young, and a group of deer and how you can spot them in their natural habitat. Mark you, there are more than about 60 different species of deers. Therefore, the nouns describing them may vary across other regions.
What Is a Male Deer Called?
People use different names to refer to a male deer. For instance, some call it a bull, stag, or a hart depending on the species of the deer. A male fallow deer is found in Africa, in Asia, a muntjac deer, while in Europe, people refer to red deer as bucks. The Sika deer are calling stags in Eurasia, while Americans call the reindeer and wapiti bulls.
How to Spot a Male Deer
All male deer, apart from East Asia’s water deer, have antlers. However, that’s not all you should know to determine whether a deers is a male or female because some female deers also have antlers. The difference is that the male antlers are more prominent heavier, and they are more branched out. Stags use their antlers to show their dominance. Therefore, the bigger and heavier the antlers are, the more likely they became their group’s leader.
Two antlers are locking into place to enable the male deers to wrestle each other without securing any facial injuries. An observation by zoologists discovered that in every team of deers , there is a hierarchy. The deer that have more built antlers rank higher in the herd. Male deer with more giant antlers display more aggressive and dominant behavior over the others.
Antlers are also a determinant factor when it comes to mating choice. A male deer with larger antlers will attract a female deer because it will assure the female deers of protection, and the female deers will have a high chance of bringing forth an offspring that will also have larger antlers.
Huge antlers also mean that it will take longer for the deer to shed off its antlers when age comes in. When a deers has larger antlers, its herd and offspring are assured of prolonging protection compared to deers with smaller antlers that shed off faster.
Large antlers also signify a superior genetic quality. The deer with bigger antlers are more likely to lead to successful reproduction and young ones that will survive any diseases and harsh Environments.
What Is a Female Deer Called?
Female deer also have different names depending on their species, size, and region that they inhabit. You can refer to a female deer as a cow, doe, or a hind. Hind refers to large species like the red deer. Small-sized female deer, on the other hand, are called does. A cow is another name Americans use to refer to the elk or wapiti female deer species. However, the doe is the most commonly used term because female deer are relatively smaller than their male counterparts.
How to Spot a Female Deers
It is easier to spot a female and a male deer than other animals because deers are sexually dimorphic. To be sexual dimorphic means that you do not have to look at the reproductive organs to tell the animals’ sexes since the two sexes have clear distinctions that differ from each other.
Does are generally small-bodied than stags, and most of them do not have antlers except the female reindeer. This could be a great reason that explains why does get attracting to male deers with huger antlers. The bigger the antlers, the more likely they are to defend themselves and their offspring from prey.
Zoologists have noted that some female deers that are not of the reindeer species also develop antlers. However, the does’ antlers are small in size, and they are deforming, rendering them unable to attack prey or fight with other deer as a male deers does. The female does with these kinds of antlers also lost them after giving birth to their first offspring.
You can also spot a pregnant deer and tell right away that it is a female deers. The female deers have a gestation period of around ten months. The weight of the pregnancy makes them become slower.
What Is The Name Of a Baby Deers?
People refer to a baby deer as a calf or a fawn. However, a young deers that has lived for a few years is neither a baby deer nor a mature deer; they are called a youngling. When a doe gives birth, the born deers starts to try standing within the first 30 minutes. They take about a week to make their legs stronger and firmer so that they can keep up with the pace of their herd. When these young ones are still calves, they like being close to their mothers; they do not like being a long distance from their mothers. This trend continues even when they develop to become younglings.
A yawn takes a year to mature into a fully grown deers. Male younglings transform into being stags, and they wander off to develop their herd. In most cases, stags never return to pay a visit to their mother after leaving. Female younglings, on the other hand, turn into does, and they find their mate. When the doe’s mate dies, the doe will have to leave the sag, and they mostly go back to their mother. A doe may return to its mother along with the fawns.
How to Refer To a Group of Deers
Generally, a group of deer is referred to as a herd. However, some deers species prefer living in smaller groups where they are in very few numbers that they cannot be considering enough to be called a herd. A herd of deer can also be referred to as a parcel of deer or a group of deer. The correct collective noun that describes a collective group of deer is a “parcel” or a “herd.”
A group of deer possesses the same characteristics as the human family. For instance, the father is the head of the family, and he offers protection to the whole family using its large antlers that can attack and neutralize wolves and other prey. On the other hand, the mother rears the children until they are mature enough to explore the wilderness on their own. Mother deers and father deer work together in training their fawns and younglings until they become old enough to look for their mates and carry on with the cycle.
Deer adapt to their environment, so they always live in the woods or large spaces among the woods. Deer cannot hibernate like bats, bears, and many animals in the wild do. On the contrary, they adapt to the conditions of their surroundings. They develop a thick coat to adjust to the weather. The thick skin also prevents the inner body parts from harm. Deer also change their digestive system enabling them to feed on whatever is available in their surroundings.
Most deers do not survive during winter, especially those that are too weak, too old, too young, or simply unable to keep up with the winter weather. Deer are susceptible to winter because they do not live in any enclosed places like caves. Deer prefer open spaces that enable them to run away from predators. With their running nature, deer do not have hibernating luxury since their habitat and way of life make them too vulnerable to sleep for a prolonged period.
Why Master the Collective Pronouns?
Many of the collective pronouns used to refer to animals sound strange, especially for people who are not native English speakers. Even some people whose first language is English can find some of these animals’ collective names strange to use the correct collective noun.
I’m pretty sure that when you spot a group of crows, you will point at them and say, “there is a flock of crows!” and people will not misinterpret you. People will understand that you are pointing at a large number of crows somewhere. However, if someone informed decides to correct you telling you, “It’s not a fleet of crows, that is a murder of crows,” you may think of them as crazy or wonder why such beautiful birds can have such an awful name.
Aside from a murder of crows, other collective nouns are; a herd of sheep, a swarm of bees, a school of fish. If you are keen, you will notice that “herd,” “swarm,” and “school” refer to groups. For instance, a school means an institution with several classes, students, and teachers.
However, we also have deceit of lapwings, a pride of lions, a crash of rhinos, and a business of ferrets that seems not to make any sense in simple English. So why should you know the collective noun of deers?
Language Development
The proper collective noun that refers to the dear originates from the old English. Did you know that English is the most difficult language to learn because it keeps on evolving? Now you know.
The English spoken today has come from Old English. You can spot the difference by reading a book like Beowulf since it has different versions; one is the Old English Version of the 1800s, while the other is the recent English version. Some words found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary today did not exist in the 1800s, showing that English is still developing with time since linguists don’t make the rules, but they only set the standards.
When many people use a particular word and agree to give it a common meaning, even if the word is not in the dictionary yet, it becomes an official English word with time. It finds its way into the dictionary since it stands to be part of the culture.
Due to this, some animals have absurd collective nouns, but they are grammatically correct.
For instance, “a murder of crows resulted from a poetic language recorded in texts of the 14th and 15th centuries. Linguistics argues that there must be a reason why the noun murder starting to be used as a collective noun. However, the reason got lost after the word became commonly used.
By the fact that students continue learning about collective nouns, vocabulary, and grammar in schools, people who are conscious of grammar still insist on using the word “murder” when referring to a group of crows even when it makes grammatical meaning when you say a “flock” of crows.
Luckily, deers do not have an absurd term when you refer to a group of them. A group of deer is calling a herd of deer. It is not a must that you refer to them as a parcel of deer, especially when you speak to people who are not grammar- enthusiasts.
Next time you spot deer in your camping or hunting expedition in the woods, you will know how to refer to them. You can also be able to tell the sex of the deers and the age of the deer. However, since language has no fixed rules and keeps changing, you don’t have to correct someone every time you hear them use a different word. Who knows, you might find the word in the dictionary the next time you check. As long as you understand the meaning, go with the flow.