The Not Deer Cryptid | Ep. 77

Welcome to another episode of Believing the Bizarre. This week, we tackle a social media/TikTok cryptic known as the Not Deer.

What exactly is the Not Deer cryptic?

Essentially, a deer that is just somewhat…off. Either it looks bigger, or its neck is longer, standing on two legs, or even having claws instead of hooves. Definitely not something you want to see staring down your headlights as your driving late at night.

But, how believable is the Not Deer? Listen now to find out.

What is the Not Deer?

Appalachia is an area filled with mystery and the paranormal. There have been reports of strange creatures throughout the area, but some are not as disturbing as the Not Deer.  

What’s up, Bizarros? This week we dive into the tale of the Not Deer.

The Not Deer may be a close cousin to the Wendigo. Much like its cousin, the Not Deer is a supernatural being or entity impersonating a deer. It’ll try to fit in with a herd of deer, but something just isn’t right about it.  

It might be too big to be a white-tailed deer, or it may stand and run on two feet. Other things that people have reported about the difference between a Not Deer and a regular non-supernatural deer are:

• a neck that is too long
• glowing eyes
• Forward facing eyes
• sharp or pointed teeth
• more than two eyes
• legs that bend the wrong way

The supernatural forest-dweller may have one or several of these characteristics that reveal it’s not what it seems. 

Is A Not Deer Supernatural, Or Is There An Earthly Explanation?

There are some possible explanations that could explain some of the reasons that cause a normal deer to appear frightening.

Chronic wasting disease is an illness where the animal is not able to retain nutrients from its food, and its body starts to decompose. This degenerative disease can cause to look like it has desiccated skin.

Rabies: turns animals rabid and makes them behave much differently than normal, and could cause them to appear different than normal. 

Mange causes the hair to fall off deer through a bacterial infection spread through lice. This could explain some of the sightings of the Not Deer. 

However, even though these conditions may cause a deer to appear strange, it doesn’t answer a lot of the sightings that have been reported.

Listen To Some Of These First-hand Not Deer Sightings

There have been reports of a strange deer that had moose-like body proportions and ran at speeds of 30 MPH or more. Sometimes described as abnormally large.

The above creature might appear to be a deer- at least at first glance, but there is something wrong about it. Almost everything about this thing is wrong. 

But a deer is the only thing that comes to mind when one tries to describe it. The “Not Deer” is a bit of urban Americana from the Appalachian region. Many people have had incidences where they find themselves, many times alone, in the wilderness or driving home & cross paths with an abnormal-looking deer. Or at least what looks like a deer from a distance. 

Upon closer inspection, people have found that the proportions are simply off. Several first-hand descriptions have included there being “more or less joints” than there should have been, with “proportions of a moose”, being “wildly disproportionate,” & having “forward-facing eyes, like a predator’s eyes.”

One witness described the experience as being “deeply unsettling” All reports have noted that this creature just ‘feels’ off or that a sort of intelligence is there. 

In a few different cases, some form of “Not Deer” was said to have only two hind legs. In one of these cases, it had arms with hands in place of forelegs. 

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is often brought up as an explanation for these kinds of occurrences. While CWD causes the severe deterioration of a deer’s mind & body & can result in strange behavior, & ultimately death.

Those who have seen deer with this condition & the Not Deer are adamant about these being two completely different things. 

From JD Sword reporter from the Skeptical reporter, found a post from a girl who talked about being from the Appalachian mountains. 

“The first mention of the Not Deer by that name was a post made August 21, 2019, by Tumblr user Will-o-the-Witch (real name Madison) on her page, Have a Magical Day. 

She was asked by an anonymous user, “What do you mean That’s Not A Deer in the mountains near you?” And Madison replied, “Anyone who spends a decent amount of time in Appalachia knows the Not Deer,” Madison said.

“More or less what I’d call a folk cryptid. Everybody has their story about it. They’re all somewhat similar. You’re in a car at night, in a rural, heavily wooded area, and probably a bit lost. It’s not wildly uncommon to see an opossum crossing the road or see blips of little animals with your headlights. You see a deer. So you/your friends go, ‘Oh! Deer!’ and slow down in case it leaps in front of you. Then you see it more clearly.” Madison explains.

She goes on to say, “there’s just something wrong about it. There’s something about its eyes. You feel your stomach get heavy like a rock, and the hair on your neck raise. You sense an intelligence that you shouldn’t. It doesn’t move like a deer; it moves like a … oh god, what is that thing? Whatever that thing is, it’s not a deer, and we need to leave. You hit the gas and get the hell out of there.”

Here is another personal encounter one unlucky individual had with a Not Deer; however, this was not in the Appalachian region.

“I’ll start by mentioning I live in Oregon. Not quite a rural town, but our town is small and only about a 10-minute drive from what you would consider a rural town or area. Everyone’s heard about the cryptids and lore of Oregon woods. I hate these woods. They’re just vast and terrifying, but at the same time tempting and beckoning almost,” says Intelligent Virus 90.

“I stay out of the woods. I don’t hunt or fish, and I might go hiking once every couple of years with friends, but I make it a point not to go where I don’t feel safe. I kind of brushed off all the stories about the woods here until I had an experience of my own, and I’m ready to share what I saw that night.”

Their friend and Intelligent Virus 90 worked the graveyard shift at a local bakery and always carpooled with each other. She would pick them up at about 11:30 pm. 

Intelligent Virus 90 says, “the bakery is in a more rural area, but the main road in town takes us almost the entire way out there. It’s a well-lit road until you get slightly out of town and since it’s the main road through town, even at night, there usually passing cars or people walking. From my house, it takes about 10 minutes to get to work using this road.”

For about 3 months, this road was being repaved. They’d have to stop right before they turn into the bakery to wait for the construction crew to finish whatever project they were doing. 

After 2 nights of being stopped outside of work for over an hour and an estimated date of construction being done, being 3 months out, they decided to start taking the back roads to work.

Intelligent Virus 90 explains, “the back way to work was on the opposite side of the town of this main road. It took us out of town, around the outskirts, and finally to the bakery for a total of about 30 minutes travel time instead of 10. This back road was surrounded by heavy woods. There was a private drive to a house every 5 miles or so. No street lights and no passing cars or pedestrians. This road was also extremely curvy. Just constant twists and turns. As expected, we’d see a lot of deer, and the occasional possum, squirrel, and other woodland creatures.”

On this particular night, they started their journey through the back roads just as they had been doing all week. They got about 10 miles through when their friend went around this bend and then suddenly slammed on her brakes. 

Intelligent Virus 90 says, “I was on my phone, so I wasn’t looking up when she saw it first. I looked up, and right in front of the car is this gigantic buck. I’m talking huge. Not moose-sized, but one of the largest bucks I’d ever seen. He was staring directly at us through the windshield.”

“We were just kind of frozen for a moment for some reason. We both looked down at the feet of the deer and in between its front feet was a dead raccoon. It was clearly a raccoon, and its face was pointed toward us, ringlets on the tail, basically a stereotypical raccoon. Except this thing was also huge. Now the buck was large, but large bucks aren’t unheard of. This raccoon was the size of a huge dog. Like the size of a mastiff.” Intelligent Virus 90 recalls.

“We looked back up at the deer, and it was still staring right at us. Like it was making eye contact with us both. My friend flashes her high beams and honks the horn at it hoping to scare it off. It doesn’t run off. Without breaking eye contact with us, it starts to walk toward the car slowly. We both are freaked out at this point, and my friend throws the car in reverse, backs up, and swerves around the deer. This entire time it moves its head to keep eye contact as we back up, pull to the side, and drive away. We look back behind us, and this thing is just standing in the road staring at us as we drive away. We finally went around a curve, and I lost sight of it, but until then, it never stopped staring right at us.” Intelligent Virus 90 said.

“We talk about this a lot and about how weird it was. I didn’t think deer ate meat (I’m not a deer expert; I just assumed they were herbivores) so standing over that dead raccoon was the most unsettling part, even over the constant eye contact.”

“Luckily, we weren’t dumb enough to get out of the car, but I always wonder what would have happened if we did.” Intelligent Virus 90 says.

“Since then, I’ve been more aware of the lore around here. I’ve heard unsettling noises and screams coming from the woods, but this was the only actual encounter I think I’ve had.”

Your Thoughts on the Not Deer, The Appalachian Cryptid

What do you think, Bizarros? Is the Not Deer just an urban legend of some deer that have come down with the sickness that caused a drastic weight loss?

Maybe it’s just an American deer with deformities?

Or is it a paranormal creature disguising itself as a deer?