Plural possessive: Deer's or deers' ?

Question

Joan from the U.S. asked about the plural possessive form of deer.

Answer

All the sources I consulted agreed that the plural possessive of deer should be written with an apostrophe before the -s, as in this example:

• The deer’s tracks were easy to follow once the animals entered the snowy woods.  

Happily, this follows the general rule that to form the possessive of any plural noun that doesn’t end in -s, add an apostrophe + s. Here are some other examples:

• children’s      The children’s library is on the second floor.
• men’s           There is a sauna in the men’s locker room.
• geese’s         The geese’s hissing and squawking scared the visitors.

I hope this helps.