Albino Deer

[SkyPup]

I had the most bizarre thing happen when I pulled up to the gate on my property on the way home from work yesterday afternoon.

I pulled up to my gate in the car and looked over in the field to my right and about 150 feet away I could see a white colored animal curled up sleeping at the base of a live oak tree. I figured someone's dog had escaped and was taking a nap there.

I opened the car door to go open the gate and the animal got up, took off, and pranced all over the property in big jumping leaps of 12-15 feet????

I was startled and astounded as to what the heck was going on???

It sure was not a dog, it wasn't a fox or coyote, it was about the size of a large bobcat, but it ran like a gazelle and was as white as the snow?? Being all white, it stood out like a sore thumb against the lush green acreage.

I went over to look for tracks to help to try to identify it but it was in the thick foilage and I couldn't find any tracks.

When I walked into the house, there was a phone message on the answering machine that one of the neighbors had left telling me they were jogging by my property this morning and out in the road in front of my gate was a small albino fawn standing my my driveway. Shocked

Yikes, I couldn't believe it was a beautiful white albino fawn.

Must have been born in March or April, I will have to get a photo of it and post here!!!

 

[dfeck]

I live in the Finger Lakes region of NYS and the Seneca Army Depot has a HUGE white deer population. They give tours and the deer are very prominent. It makes you wonder what was going on at the Army Depot over the years to cause the mutation of normal white tail deer to start producing white deer. It has since closed down due to budget cuts. Here's a link

Seneca White Deer Inc.

Thanks,
Doug

 

[SkyPup]

Wow, that is amazing how they managed to reproduce so much there?

They are extremely rare around here, I'm thinking maybe 1:30,000.


You might hear about one every decade or so...

 

[cowboy357]

Yea , sure !! next thing Your gonna post is You seen a white racoon , .

I,ve seen a few of the deer online , But doubt i,ll ever have the pleasure of seeing one in person . I hope You can get a pic . Bob

 

[Scooby074]

I saw one when driving not far from my house about a month ago. This one was a fair sized buck. Startled me, i backed up to see what it was. I thought at first it was a large dog or something as ive never seen a albino deer. Wish i had my camera for that one

 

[studor]

Technically it may not be an albino -- just white. Most albino's have a number of other problems and do not last long in nature. White coloration however is just a problem with camoflage -- no predation -- no problem
I had a half white doe and completely white buck on my property for a number of years. We frequently saw the doe, sometimes with fawns that always seemed to have normal coloration. SWMBO even named her Phoebe. The local hunters seemed to avoid her believing it to be bad luck to shoot her. The buck only seemed to show up in winter-- kinda spooky to see him crossing a snow covered field

 

[radioman]

yup - there white deer here in NYS at army depot. Every other year there seems to be a newspaper article on it in the democrat and chronicle.

 

[EddieWalker]

Are there any game farms in your area? Hunting ranches? Fallow deer come in three color phases, with white being very common for them. George Washington brought Fallow deer to Mt Vernon, and people have been releasing them on their land every since. Allot of the times, a few get out. Sometimes enough escape, or the ranch just tears down the fence, and you end up with a growing population.

In California, where I'm from, Point Reyes, which is just N of SF has allot them. Then further North, near Willits, they are all over the place. Hurst let quite a few go on his ranch too!! Here in Texas, you can find them on farms just about everywhere. I know of several ranches that raise them for food and to sell the bucks to game ranches. The white bucks tend to have the largest antlers.

Of course, you'd have to get a realy good look at it to know the difference.

Eddie

 

[kebo]

true albinism is also characterized by pink eyes, and pink skin.