Calling All Deer with Dr. Larry Marchinton
Types of Deer Calls
 Editor’s
Note: What is a hunter saying to a deer when the woodsman
blows a call? What calls are the most effective? What
actually is meant by the sound that the hunter is trying
to imitate? Although every hunter and each call manufacturer
has his own notion, at the University of Georgia in
Athens, Georgia, the sounds that whitetail deer make
and what they mean by these sounds have been scrutinized
carefully by a team of scientists that included Dr.
Larry Marchinton, the former head of the University
of Georgia’s Deer Research Project, who’s
now retired. This week Dr. Marchinton shares his research
on deer vocalization and identifies some of the calls
that deer make and tell us what they mean.
Distress Calls:
“Two calls indicate distress – the snort
and the bawl,” Marchinton reported. “Most
hunters have heard the snort, which is an alarm call
that deer use. I personally believe that the snort communicates
that there’s danger in the area. And some research
tends to indicate that when a deer snorts, he’s
trying to solicit some type of response from the animal
or person at which he’s snorting. When a deer
snorts, often he senses danger, which may mean that
he’s using this type of communication to try and
make a predator show itself. But there are no easy definitions
of what deer sounds mean. My one-tim e
graduate student, Grant Woods, who’s now a famous
biologist utilized the snort to call deer in, which
if the snort was strictly an alarm call, then the snort
wouldn’t be able to lure deer. However, Woods
did just that. So we’re still learning a great
deal about deer vocalization. The bawl, which is a cry
of pain, can be made on a modified predator call. The
bawl is an effective call for the hunter to call up
does. Occasionally I’ve seen a buck come to the
bawl, but this call apparently stimulates the maternal
response of the deer. Although the bawl seems to be
most productive right after fawning season, deer will
come to this call even later on in the fall.”
Antagonistic or Aggressive Sounds:
“There are basic ally
three of these calls that are given by the mature buck,”
Marchinton mentioned. “There’s the grunt,
the grunt/snort, and the grunt/snort/wheeze. The grunt
is a low guttural sound that can be utilized by both
sexes throughout the year. It is the lowest intensity
of antagonistic interaction. The grunt/snort is a more-intensive
call than the grunt that’s also made by both sexes.
This call is given by making a grunt sound and immediately
following the grunt with rapid snorts. This is not the
same type of snort that’s an alarm call and is
long and drawn out. The snorts that follow a grunt are
short and choppy. When a deer gives this call, he’s
making a little more-serious threat to the other deer
and the animals to which he’s talking. The grunt/snort/wheeze,
the most-aggressive call that a deer vocalizes, is made
with a grunt followed by one to four snorts, and then
a wheeze. When a deer gives this call, he’s telling
another deer or the animals that are threatening him
that he’s serious, and something is going to happen.”
Tomorrow: More Kinds of Deer
Calls
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