Episode 352: The Not-Deer
Happy Halloween! We have a super spooky episode for you this week, a full five out of five bats on the spookiness scale, all about the not-deer of modern folklore!\n\nJoin our Patreon and get bonus episodes and other perks! You can also buy copies of the Beyond Bigfoot & Nessie book and Kate's other books!\n\nFurther reading:\n\nNot Deer, or a Deer?\n\nDays before Halloween, creepy trail photo reveals deer standing on 2 legs in NC woods\n\nSharon A Hill's Spooky Geology (not about the not-deer but a lot of fun even so)\n\nThe white-tailed deer uses its bright white tail to warn other deer of danger:\n\n\n\nWhite-tailed deer sometimes stand on their hind legs to reach vegetation or fight:\n\n\n\n\n\nShow transcript:\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\nHappy Halloween! It\u2019s time for our spookiest episode of the year! It\u2019s rated five out of five bats on our spookiness scale. If you like scary stories on Halloween, make some cocoa and popcorn and sit back to be spooked. If you\u2019re not really a fan of the scarier stuff, you might want to skip this one. Some people also really don\u2019t like hearing about diseases, and that\u2019s one of the things we\u2019ll be discussing. We\u2019re going to talk about a really weird cryptid called the not-deer.\nBefore we get started, though, we have a little bit of housekeeping, as the big podcasters call it. First, I want to reassure everyone who has sent me suggestions that I\u2019m trying to get to them as soon as possible. I love how many people listen and want to share their enthusiasm about animals, but I do feel bad that some people have been waiting a really long time for their suggestion to make it off of the massive humongous ever-growing ideas list into an episode.\nAt the same time, I\u2019ve been thinking of ways to make money off the podcast without running ads. I make Strange Animals Podcast because I love helping people learn about animals and science, and I also really value the people who are able to support the podcast through Patreon. But I do put an awful lot of work into each episode, so much that it\u2019s basically a second job. I thought about it, and decided to make a new Patreon tier that\u2019s a little different from the others. It\u2019s called the terror bird tier, and when I drew the art for it I forgot that terror birds didn\u2019t have actual teeth, but we\u2019ll call that artistic liberty. It\u2019s a $25 a month tier, and not only do you get access to the bonus episodes that all patrons can listen to, after three months at that tier you can message me your episode idea AND tell me what week you\u2019d like that episode to run. I\u2019ve limited the new tier to 25 backers, to make it fair for people who don\u2019t have the money for that, and honestly I don\u2019t expect to get very many people at that level at all, because that\u2019s a lot of money, but I thought I\u2019d give it a try.\nFinally, the Beyond Bigfoot & Nessie book is still available, as are my other books, and in 2024 I\u2019m planning to attend some conventions again to sell copies of the book. I\u2019ll let you know where I\u2019ll be as I find out, in case you want to come say hi. I\u2019m also very slowly working on a sequel to the book, tentatively titled Small Mysteries, which is all about mystery animals that are really small, like frogs and insects and teeny fish. It probably won\u2019t be ready to publish for a few years, so I\u2019m working hard to make sure it\u2019s got a whole lot of footnotes with references. That\u2019s one of the things I regret not doing for Beyond Bigfoot & Nessie.\nNow, with all that out of the way, on to the spookiness!\nThe not-deer is a cryptid, or mystery creature, that\u2019s mostly reported from the Appalachian region of the United States. I live in the southern Appalachians near the Smoky Mountains, but I\u2019d never heard of the not-deer until a few months ago. I subscribe to Sharon Hill\u2019s Strange Times newsletter, and also love her Spooky Geology website where you can learn all the science behind weird events like earthquake lights.