— The Truth About “Not Deer” - Tumblr

So I am sure many of you at this point have heard of these things called “Not Deer” on Tiktok.

“Not Deer” are beings that look like deer at first glance, but are just “off”. They are supposedly found in the blue ridge mountains (and surrounding areas). They can have proportions that do not line up with the natural proportions of deer. They can be extremely emaciated. They can have deformed horns, elongated mouths/teeth, joints that bend the wrong way, or completely blacked out eyes.

But are these things real (real as in a legit legend people know about) Appalachian cryptids?

NOPE!

Not Deer are completely fabricated by tiktok and here is why!

Many people from the areas where Not Deer are supposedly well known have never heard of them

This was the first thing that tipped me off to the fact that Not Deer are not actually part of the Appalachian folklore was the fact that there is very little info about them ANYWHERE minus 1 tumblr blog, and a bunch of tiktoks. I get local legends tend to be local and this not well known outside of those areas… but when people from Appalachia don’t know this supposed well known Appalachian cryptid that tips off alarm bells.

And the earliest mention of “Not Deer” (or Deor as they are also called) I can find is in 2020. There may be some from 2019 but the point of it is that these things are a fairly new phenomena that only seems to be talked about on tiktok. They are so new in fact that, as I said before, people in the areas that they are supposedly found in do not know about them.

Most of the things that make Not Deer “Not Deer” are symptoms of actual diseases

I am aware with most cryptids can be chalked up to deformed to sick animals but in the case of Not Deer the entire legend legit comes from people who don’t know how deer work.

This is a normal white-tailed deer (the types of deer found in the blue ridge mountains and other parts of Appalachia). They are tall, sort of dumb, and periodically shed their horns. Deer fear humans and will generally freeze and then flee if they see you.

Here is a quick size comparison!

This is the same type of deer with a prion disease called “CWD” (Chronic Wasting Disease).

These are the symtoms of CWD.

Notice how a lot of the CWD symptoms match with characteristics of Not Deer. The lack of fear of humans Not Deer have can be easily attributed to the deer in question having its brain liquefied by a prion disease (along with the unnatural jerky movements). Deer have black eyes to begin with. And emaciation can easily be contributed to this (since CWD deer often do not eat) or other diseases like Blue Tongue, Brain Abscesses, Mange, or parasites.

You do not have to be an avid deer hunter or vet to know what a deer looks like. They generally dont differ too much and then they are sick, you can tell pretty easily by the condition of their bodies.

Not Deer just seem to be a chronically online person’s interpretation of why a sick deer looks the way it does. Sick or brain damaged deer wont behave the same way normal deer do. And depending on the illness they will not look the same way normal deer do. They will be deformed, emaciated, and scary looking. (This also explains why all the ‘not deer’ footage on tiktok looks like just a sick deer, because it is a sick deer).

So to conclude, are Not Deer a legit cryptid?

Nope. They are a neat idea but most of the hype just seems to exist because of tiktok videos made by people who do not actually know how deer work. It makes me pretty sad to come to that conclusion since I am a cryptozoology nerd and think that shit is cool.

If you saw a Not Deer chances are you probably saw a deer with CWD and if thats the case please call your local game warden to report it.

QUICK IMPORTANT EDIT:

To clarify this post was made in response to all of the tiktoks claiming that these things are both actual legends and actual beings. Not Deer are in general not real (like most cryptids) but they originate as a horror story on tumblr. Tiktok seems to have perverted them into something else but as far as general legitimacy goes: these aint it from both a folklore and actual realness angle. It was just a fun spooky story posted on the internet. Please stop saying you regularly see these things or have been attacked by one.