On two occasions, in the same locations, I have encountered (heard) a male who has a very unique voice (see Roe deer observation (Apr 3, 2024) – territorial conflict and Unusual night observations after a windstorm – beavers, roe deer, tawny owls (Apr 16, 2024)).
During the first observation, I thought that the male was simply applying a vocalization that is different than the usual territorial (or defensive/alarm) bark.
I still think that was the case but only partly.
My second observation suggests that this male also has a unique vocal pattern and produces sounds that are different from those emitted by other males.
The male has been able to produce barks that resemble the typical territorial barking but perhaps it causes him discomfort and, unless engaged in a conflict or some other type of intense communication where the message should be very clear, the male does not bark ‘in the customary manner’.
Here I will copy an excerpt from my previous post,
Normally, roe deer bark and the energy is invested in the bark itself.
The bark then resonates making each sound appear longer.
This male apparently could not invest in the bark itself and he seemed to have adapted by actively (and somewhat strenuously) extending the duration of the bark itself.
Namely, the duration of his bark was not achieved through the impact of the loud initial sound which then reverberated (in which case, the actively produced sound is short but intense).
Instead he was actively producing long barks that were not as intense overall but in which he invested throughout the stages of the bark itself and its aftereffect.
That is to say, where other males would have ceased the vocalizations enjoying their prolonged resonance in which they invested no longer, this male had to invest both in the initial bark and in its continuation (he was making effort all through the sound sequence).
However, I have also heard this male barking sharply (if not resonantly) before, and it appeared to me that the vocalization was perhaps different also in its message.
I think that when this male is patrolling his territory, he is probably also producing vocalizations that are different from typical roe deer male vocalizations.
But I am not certain that the ‘strangeness’ of his vocalizations tonight were only due to his unique vocals.
I suspect that his vocalizations were not identical in their intent to other males’ vocalizations.
The male apparently has the ‘equipment’ necessary for producing more typical (if somewhat higher-pitched) barks.
There does not seem to be a physiological deficiency that has prevented him from barking normally.
Perhaps the individual is not comfortable barking ‘as usual’ frequently (there might be some physiological obstacle that still allows for producing a typical bark but that causes unpleasant sensations) or the individual simply does not enjoy barking ‘as usual’, e.g., there is or there has been the slight physiological inconvenience due to which the individual has developed other barking styles and he prefers these not merely because they do not cause discomfort but because he likes them.
However, it should be noted that the barking style the individual was using appeared involving more effort than the typical bark would, and it did not sound very threatening (either because the male did not intend for it to sound threatening or because the vocal quality failed to relay the intent of intimidation).
Firstly, I do not suppose that this individual is very young.
In some species (e.g., red deer), younger males produce different (higher-pitched) vocalizations than older males and females even base their responses on the traits of these vocalizations.
I am not certain whether vocalizations differ between male age groups in roe deer, as well, but I believe I can exclude the possibility that this was a young male because he was apparently holding a territory.
In our area, roe deer have been living for decades (but probably centuries or even thousands of years).
The habitats are settled and there are always some territorial bucks.
The bucks I have gotten to observe (and I am not certain whether this buck is one of them because I never saw him while he was vocalizing) were mature (based on the complexity of their antlers).
I find it very difficult to believe that a young male would be able to outcompete these residential bucks holding his own range at a young age.
At least in females, the mature size seems to be reached quite early (possibly because roe deer are not a large species and there is no need to invest in growing over several years) – by the age of (1.5 -) 2 years.
I do not suppose that young males would be delayed in their development and thereby any vocal structures might have formed by the age there is an actual chance to establish a territory.
To conclude, I do not suppose that the male’s vocalizations were different because he was very young although there is a possibility that he has had difficulties vocalizing when he was younger and, as a result, he developed different methods to communicate his intent.
Additionally, there is a possibility that this male is a recent territory holder and that perhaps for several years prior to this he has lived without a territory.
During this time, the male might not have had a chance to engage in territorial barking because he did not have a territory in the first place (although he might have engaged in alarm/defensive barking).
If he happened to come by his territory later in life, the male might have found it challenging to perform the territorial barking rituals because, over the last years, he has not trained his voice for these audial displays.
Consequently, the ‘awkward bark’ might also be due to lack of practice (while exposed to the sudden need to bark a lot which could have exhausted the male’s vocal potential and he might simply have become ‘creaky’ because he has overused his voice over the last weeks compared to the lack of territorial use over the last years).
This has been the first individual who has presented an array of vocal patterns to me that I had never heard before although I have encountered roe deer very frequently.
Either these vocalizations bore a different context (roe deer males (and females) had barked at me from forest edges in habitats where I appeared for the first time and I had often overheard what I call their territorial patrolling although it should be pointed out that I do not believe they held territories in the same sense wolves or beavers hold territories which are quite strictly delineated with scent-marked borders) which I had not heard before in other individuals but which are present in other individuals under circumstances that had so far evaded me, or this individual had developed his own unique vocalizations with unique messages.
I suppose that both explanations are valid.
Firstly, I had never witnessed a territorial conflict between bucks and the sharper barking could have been a vocalization I had missed out on because it appears during rather direct confrontation.
But, secondly, some of the vocalizations I heard on Apr 16, suggested of a mixture of typical patrolling bark and some other communication.
I believe that this male might have been patrolling his territory but the vocalizations (which are typically thought of as aimed at competitors) might have been intended for female(s) on his range.
If this male has, indeed, become a territory-holder for the first time after years of relative roaming, he might have spent most of his spring-summer time alone or interacting only with females.
Some of his ‘conflict behaviour’ told me that he might have trespassed in order to visit some of the females (individuals because perhaps not exclusively females) whom he had interacted with over the last winter.
If he had not been a part of an ‘official’ group before, mostly keeping out of sight from others, this might have been his first experience as a group member and perhaps even as a leader because, in these riparian forest habitats, during months of deeper snow, the local roe deer tend to travel in herds (see former posts) which seem to be led by a male.
At the time, I had not considered his higher pitch a possible indication he was a recent territory holder but I had surmised that he intruded in another male’s range (perhaps a male he had been familiar with during winter) because the spring had set in very early and he was not psychologically prepared to lose contact with other members of his winter group.
Now, if his vocalizations indicate of infrequent territorial use over the last years, I think he might also have lacked experience in these shifts between winter and spring.
Maybe he is not a father, either, and, as a result, he might not be conditioned to remain on the range by the female pregnancy (e.g., perhaps he has replaced another buck that died during winter) because, formerly, the altered hormonal states in females did not bear impact on his ranging behaviour (he had no territory to zoom in to).
Alternatively, nobody has died and this buck has carved out a range for himself which is quite suboptimal.
During the territorial conflict, I was very confused regarding this male’s actual range because once the resident male (on whose range he had trespassed) had pushed him out of his territory, this male ended up in a location which is not very suitable for purposes other than travelling through or occasional foraging.
It is very open, lacking in shelter and there are several households (higher human disturbance level).
Maybe this male, during his lonesome years, has become used to living near the edge of the actual roe deer population, utilizing habitats that would not bring him into conflict with anybody.
If I am not mistaken, his current range seems sort of long and narrow, possibly, on both sides of the river verging between riparian forest, some pastures and households.
However, if he has managed to carve out a territory at all (without replacing a deceased individual), he should be a pretty formidable buck (also, because he has managed to survive for so long on his own which is probably not very typical).
It is then worth asking why he has not challenged another male prior to this in order to take over.
I recently observed another male from the opposite side of the garden allotment area fleeing from precisely the range where this male might have settled and choosing to pass by potential predators (me and my dog) rather than to intrude on his territory (see Roe deer observation (Mar 26, 2024) – territorial pressure).
If he was, indeed, avoiding this particular male (and I have seen a male thereabouts who might be this very same individual and who was mature and stately enough), why has this male not used his imposing presence to acquire a territory and a mate of his own?
My guess is that perhaps the physiological mechanisms behind his unique vocals are hormonal or psychological rather than disfunctional.
Perhaps he is well developed in his body but he has been rather immature in his mindset.
I wonder if something has caused him to delay sexual maturity (and the resulting will to come by a fixed range and a female) without delaying his physical maturity (not retarding growth).
It might be testosterone or some combination of hormones that drive the resident males to vocalize in these guttural, resonant barks.
Maybe this male is somehow different and his motivation behind holding a territory is also different (he is more inclined to be a part of a social unit than he is inclined to dominate).
However, his testosterone levels should be normal because he has been able to establish a range and the male that I saw (if it was him) had highly developed antlers which I suppose are greatly impacted by testosterone production (testosterone might be fundamental driving force behind antler formation, at least, it appears to be so in red deer males).
Is it possible that some other hormone would outcompete testosterone without interfering with testosterone production but evoking a different psychological attitude?
For example, the vocalization that I heard on Apr 16, was very unique and it did not seem aggressive (nor it was anyhow responded by the neighbouring male).
I had this hunch that the male was actually trying to communicate with the female(s) rather than with competitors.
If over these years he has engaged in interactions with other females mostly, i.e., his mother and females he may have met as a migrating individual, he might have based his vocal communication on relatively close-range squeals (see Roe deer vocalization – ‘the screech’?) as a son or as a subordinate.
It is known that female roe deer avoid non-territorial males during the mating season (even calling the resident male to their aid) but it is not clear how females might interact with non-residential males outside of mating season.
While the female is with her fawn(s), she probably avoids any other individual near the fawn but when the fawn is rather grown up or during winter, she might tolerate strange males.
I think that this male is very social by nature (and the hormone involved might be oxytocin), inclined to interact.
Perhaps his desire to interact is greater than his drive to repel, to ward off.
Therefore, the territorial bark might not be congruent with his psychological disposition and he might be attempting to create a vocalization that falls between the bark and the squeal (which might also suit his higher-pitched voice).
He probably perceives his duty to patrol and to defend but he also cannot invest himself fully because it is not how he feels about this whole ‘having a range’ deal.
If he has come to associate squeals not with submissiveness but with females, he might be trying to combine the territorial objectives with his social communication objectives.
In fact, his vocalization sort of sounded like a bark-squeal.
The vocalization that he was producing, required some effort (much like it is more difficult to sing than to speak because each sound is drawn out longer).
Perhaps the bark was not as resonant (as it had been during my first observation) because it was accompanied with the squeal (prolonged into squeal) and the squeal took too much vocal strength in order to produce a very prominent bark as the initial part of the vocalization.
It does not appear that this male finds it easy to bark, nor to bark-squeal but if he must make the effort, he is motivated more greatly by the possibility to interact socially than by the possibility to be the ultra macho roe.
I suppose that his range might actually border with that of several females if it is long without perhaps covering the ranges of the females fully (but I am not certain of this).
The male might have this desire to communicate his range patrolling observations (especially, after the storm) to all of his female friends.
I believe that the females who live on his range will have a very interesting time with this male around, and so will we (my dog and I).
***
On Apr 26, I heard a male performing a similar bark (which, in this case, was a bark-howl more than it was a bark-squeal because it was less forced and the vocal investment rested on the first half of the vocalization) in a different part of the same general area.
Now I am not certain whether it was the same male or if this is a normal vocalization for roe deer which was only transformed by the male with the unique voice.
It could have been the same male because it was only perhaps 0,5 – 1 km from where I had heard the male with the unique voice.
However, then his range must be extremely peculiarly shaped (resembling a band rather than a circle or a rectangular, or a hexagon).
Else, he might have abandoned the part of his range where I first heard him and he might have moved to reside further inland (away from the river).
I will keep listening to determine whether it was the same male or whether such vocalization (transformed by the specific male but not invented by him) belongs in the repertoire of roe deer males as a species.
Notes by Ieva 