Latest / Skeptoid / Skeptoid #1011: The Not-Deer and Weird Appalachian Lore

Transcript

Skeptoid #1011: The Not-Deer and Weird Appalachian Lore · Skeptoid

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Sharon Hill: Around 2020 stories emerged on social media of a cryptid that
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was being sighted in the Appalachian forests of the Eastern U.S. Witnesses
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say they thought it was a deer at first until it revealed itself as acting or
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looking like no deer they had ever seen.
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The contemporary legend of the "Not-Deer" was born and began migrating online.
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That's coming up right now on Skeptoid.
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You are listening to Skeptoid.
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I'm Sharon Hill, guest hosting for Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com.
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The Not-Deer and Weird Appalachian Lore.
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This episode was sponsored by Jay and Carrie from Middleton, Wisconsin.
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To sponsor your own episode, come to skeptoid.com/sponsor.
1:00
Welcome to the show that separates fact from fiction, science from pseudoscience,
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real history from fake history, and helps us all make better life decisions
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by knowing what's real and what's not.
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The white-tailed deer of North, Central, and South America is
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a very common large mammal.
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It's so populous that it becomes a nuisance for farmers and gardeners, but
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also a well-known hazard for drivers.
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In other words, everyone knows what this deer species looks like and
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generally has an idea of how it behaves.
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Around 2019, descriptions of deer that did not behave as expected,
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began to spread on the internet.
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Witnesses, particularly in the Eastern U.S., reported encounters
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with animals that they initially observed as just another deer,
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when suddenly the animals exhibited uncanny and bizarre characteristics.
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These deer were seen making jerky movements or they had out of proportion
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body parts, particularly the head or legs.
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Some were observed to be walking on their hind legs as
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if their front legs were arms.
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Their skin, eyes, and teeth were wrong.
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People reported that the deer made clicking noises or other unnatural sounds.
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These encounters unnerved the witnesses, and this phenomenon acquired the
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name, the "Not-Deer." These stories expanded and spread on social media.
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The Not-Deer appeared on the Tumblr web platform in 2019 and eventually became
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a popular subject on TikTok and Reddit.
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As the story spread, the Not-Deer quickly gained a spooky reputation
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as something menacing and evil.
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The Not-Deer stories were situated primarily from the
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Appalachian region of the U.S.
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Eventually, the stories morphed and the Not-Deer was described as a
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malevolent spirit in the form of a deer.
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This framing was certainly influenced by the increasingly popular thematic
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and media genre of "weird Appalachia."
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Before I unpack that concept, as a lifelong Pennsylvanian and geologist, I
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have almost exclusively heard the name of this U.S. region pronounced as Appalachia
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and the mountains as the Appalachians.
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However, the pronunciation varies regionally with the states south
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of Pennsylvania border using Appalachia and the Appalachians.
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You will find content expressing a strong preference for using the latter
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Appalachia as the only right way.
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Correlated with that is the perception that the heart of
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Appalachia is West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee.
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Because many of the video and audio content about the Not-Deer and other weird
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phenomenon is focused on these areas, I will use the preferred pronunciation.
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Appalachia is the mountain and valley region inland from the east coast
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of North America that stretches some 2,000 miles from Alabama to
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the Canadian maritime provinces.
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It is geologically and culturally complex.
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Formed from multiple mountain-building events beginning about 1 billion
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years ago and ending about 300 million years ago, tectonic
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events created ridges and valleys.
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The region includes well-known mountainous areas, such as the Great
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Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, Green Mountains, White Mountains,
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Catskills, Poconos, and the Alleghenies.
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The location of the mountain chain makes it a natural route for migrating animals.
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Several large river valleys are sourced there.
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The land supports huge tracks of deciduous and coniferous forest land.
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It was the homeland of many indigenous tribes.
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The isolation of the mountains and valleys led the later immigrant
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settler populations to develop their own unique folk culture and they were
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derogatorily known as "hillbillies," who were often stereotyped as
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backwards and superstitious.
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In her 2024 book, The Age of Deer, Erika Howsare expands on the long
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history between people and deer.
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The deer are all around us, yet usually at a middle distance away.
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They are familiar, yet often hidden, surprising us by their appearance.
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Deer are too large to ignore, so we will make a point to state that they are there.
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Howsare also points out something particular about the deer.
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She says, there's something about how a deer looks back at us.
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While many animals do not acknowledge people except to flee, the deer sees
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us, observes us before moving on.
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They represent nature, but is beings that are also aware of us.
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Complex stories and lore about the deer exist as well.
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In the Americas, the indigenous peoples were reliant on deer for life needs
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and myths and legends include them as a regular part of life and death.
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Some unsourced online media claim the idea of the Not-Deer is rooted in the legends
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of forest spirits of North America, Europe, and Asia, or that the Not-Deer
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is a part of Appalachian folklore.
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This is inaccurate.
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Deer have a long, varied, but almost entirely benign association
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with magical concepts worldwide.
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The horror theme of the Not-Deer stories, was developed only within
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the past five years or so and have an uncanny and evil tone.
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The usually timid herbivore, symbolic of nature's beauty we admire, is
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turned into an unnatural threat.
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The Not-Deer tales serve as a warning that the wilderness still holds
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secrets and perils we need to respect.
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That overall theme has lately become associated with the
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Appalachian land itself.
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"Weird" or "strange" Appalachia is the contrived concept that these
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forests are haunted and dangerous, hosting supernatural beings.
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The lore portrays the woods as enchanted with an ancient magic, as old as the
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land itself, far older than humans, and that the creatures who dwelled
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here before us still inhabit the woods in their eldritch forms as monsters,
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witches, ghosts, and fairies, or may manifest as bizarre sound or lights.
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The genre of Appalachian folk horror wasn't new.
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But it ramped up, particularly around 2020 when people began to share experiences.
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People told of creepy incidents that occurred while living in the
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Appalachian woods or while hiking or staying at vacation rentals.
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Locals would matter of factly state that the woods have always been haunted,
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leading to the pop cultural idea that it is not unusual for weird things to be
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observed in these eastern forest lands.
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Google search shows that Not-Deer related to Appalachia increased as a term of
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interest, particularly in 2020 and 2021.
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The search location most associated with them was West Virginia.
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Content creators repeated and embellished stories of the Not-Deer
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in the context of "weird Appalachia" as often seen with cryptids.
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The descriptions of the Not-Deer morphed and merged with other monster stories.
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Thanks to creative license as well as misappropriation of indigenous lore, we
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see the Not-Deer concept merging into a corrupted version of the Algonquin
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cannibal spirit of the north, the Wendigo, now erroneously depicted with antlers.
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Another dramatic take on Not-Deer is that they're not the well-known timid
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forest creature, but supernatural shapeshifters: humans that have
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imperfectly taken the form of a deer.
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In this sense, the modern Not-Deer followed the creation of "creepypasta"
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creatures like Slender Man.
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These are tales spawned from scary made up stories or images spread
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online by copying and pasting and adding your own flourishes.
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Copy/pasting of scary tales became the term creepypasta.
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Developed and spread artificially fast, unlike regular folklore, these
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stories are called "folkloresque" and may become so widespread that they
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enter into our lived culture and become indistinguishable from genuine folklore.
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Reports of strange deer behavior are common.
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It's just within the last five years that the theme has gained an association with
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cryptids and named the "Not-Deer." I found a reference written in 1975 relating two
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incidents of strange deer-like creatures that were from the plains, not Appalachia.
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This came secondhand to Jerome Clark, former editor of Fate Magazine.
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Clark later wrote in Fortean Times Magazine about these reports.
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The first was from Mrs. Laub of Calumet, Oklahoma.
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She said that around 1951, she saw a creature in her farm field that looked
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like a cross between a wolf and a deer that stood on four thin deer like
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legs, but with huge pads for feet.
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It had long hair, pointed ears and a bushy tail.
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Then soon after, before Mrs. Laub's account appeared in Fate, Clark's
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father told him of a weird animal he had encountered along a road in Canby,
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Minnesota that looked like a small deer, but with a horse-like tail.
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He shot at the animal to scare it, but astoundingly it didn't react.
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Both witnesses noted that they were not like any other animals they'd ever seen.
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These tales precede the Not-Deer concept by almost five decades.
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Reports of unnatural animal encounters go back long before that.
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As you might have anticipated, there are some natural explanations to account
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for Not-Deer reports in Appalachia.
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Deer rearing up on their hind legs is not that abnormal.
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Deer may take a bipedal stance in several normal situations to see,
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hear, sniff, or reach food from trees.
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They also do this to intimidate, fight or play, or even as a surprise
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reaction to people or objects.
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Game cameras have caught deer in these positions innumerable times.
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Deer do not have an easy life in the wild.
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They're susceptible to injuries, parasites, viruses, bacterial
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infections, and endangered by humans, their main predator.
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Current encounters with Not-Deer are at least somewhat attributable to wildlife
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diseases that are rampant in white-tailed deer populations resulting in distressing
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appearance and bizarre behaviors.
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Diseases associated with coughing and labored breathing, uncoordination,
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swollen body parts, skin lesions or growths, hair loss, overgrown
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or misshapen hooves or antlers.
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And secondary unusual behaviors such as approaching humans,
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repetitive or unusual motion, and desperate seeking of water or food.
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Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease also affects deer and related animals
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causing pathological behavior.
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The animal dies within a few days.
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Chronic Wasting Disease is likely a major cause of people reporting
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anomalous deer behavior and appearance.
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CWD is a disease related to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, also
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known as "mad cow disease." Abnormal proteins called prions are produced
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in a chain reaction affecting the brain and damaging the nervous system.
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It's spread through the population through direct contact and is always fatal.
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First discovered in Colorado in 1967, it spread east of the Mississippi in 2002,
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and now has spread across North America.
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Prions can persist in the environment for years.
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CWD causes emaciation, drooling and desensitization
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to threats like people in cars.
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It can cause tremors, stumbling, and repetitive movements.
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CWD-infected deer are sometimes referred to as "zombie deer," an
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unfortunate and inaccurate label.
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The deer do not normally attack or bite people.
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As far as we know, CWD is not transmissible to humans, however,
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various precautions regarding contact with deer, reporting, and disposal
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of certain carcass parts, such as the head and spinal column, are employed
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in areas where the disease is known.
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Community feeding and watering of wild deer spreads this disease.
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In some reports related to the Not-Deer, the animal is described
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as having a bovine or swollen face that makes its appearance unnatural.
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The National Deer Association published information on a chronic
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infection that causes facial swelling.
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The syndrome has been named "Bullwinkle Deer." Animals with
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this or other conditions can be startling and confusing to witnesses.
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We can conclude that the modern legend of the Not-Deer was heavily influenced
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by an assemblage of factors that came together beginning around 2019: the
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cultural appetite for weird Appalachia tales of magical places and their
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monsters; human encounters with deer both usual and unusual; an expansion
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of terrible behavioral-altering diseases; and the prevalence of social
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media that encouraged the spread and embellishment of these stories.
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We continue with more on the infamous spooky phenomenon reported
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in "weird Appalachia" in the ad-free and extended premium feed.
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14:48
This has been guest host Sharon Hill.
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You can find my work on popular cryptids, spooky geology, and anomalous natural
14:54
phenomenon at my website sharonahill.com.
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