Albino Twin Buck Tales

[dmccarty]

MossFlowerWoods thread about white tails reminded me to tell the tale of the albino twin white tails. Hopefully, the resident TBN Grammar POlice will approve my usage of tail and tales. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We got lucky a last year in that there were twin fawns born. We see quite a few but they still are rare. However, last year we had TWIN albino fawns! :shocked::dance1:

I have never seen an albino deer much less twins. I tried to get decent photos of the twins but never really did. I would always see them when the light was very bad, and even though I have very good equipment, the light was just horrible. The deer would move and thus the deer would blur out a bit. Often I would see them, stop for the shot and they would run. Nikon released a new camera this year that had much better low light performance than my old camera which was pretty danged good. I ordered the new camera ASAP but it arrived too late to get THE photo of the two twins. :hissyfit::hissyfit::hissyfit: They twins turned out to be bucks, and right before I traded my old camera in for the new camera, the does kicked the young bucks out of the herd.



A close up of one of them:



I will post a few more in another post.

Later,
Dan

 

[BuzzardA91]

Those are awesome. Hope they do well in the wild and grow to up to be old ghosts of the woods.

 

[dmccarty]

Seeing the albinos is/was something special, especially at night and/or in fog or rain. The albinos looked like spirits in the forest especially if they were a good distance in the forest. Very spooky looking.

The whiteness of the albinos really stood out in the forest. Your eyes are drawn to them, well, like a moth to the flame. You just see the albino and miss other deer in the photos...





Do you see the other deer in the photos?

When I took these photos another 4-6 deer were within 20-30 feet of the albinos. I only had a few minutes before the deer ran off but it took a minute or two for me to even notice the other deer.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

I last saw one of the albino's back in September in our front yard. We never saw them near the house but one day one of the twins walked across the front yard.



I hope nobody shoots them during the hunting season but I am afraid someone will. The albinos were pretty safe where that particular doe heard lives, but once the bucks got kicked out they have to roam, and in other areas they are likely to be hunted.

I was talking to one of the delivery drivers a few weeks ago about the albino twins. He said almost a decade ago he shot an albino deer and he as been cursed every since. :shocked: He got divorced, lost his house, went bankrupt, and said everything he touched for a few years went bad.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Those are awesome. Hope they do well in the wild and grow to up to be old ghosts of the woods.

Me too. I would love to see the woods full of white deer.

Later,
Dan

 

[Don87]

Beautiful photos, thanks for sharing.

About 10 years ago I read an article about albino deer, the article claimed that albino deer were caused by inbreeding.

 

[texasjohn]

Amazing photos. Looks like the bucks, if allowed to grow, will have good horns...they are forked even in their first year, not spikes. We need more albino deer...would be fewer collisions at night if all deer were white. These are true albinos...pink noses, white eyes, etc...

 

[creekbend]

Albino, Piebald, and Melanistic Whitetail Deer BTW, beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing.

 

[dmccarty]

Yeppers, these deer look to be true albinos and not piebalds.

I did not even think about how much "safer" albino deer would vs cars! :laughing::laughing::laughing: The car threat might allow the albino's to spread their genes.

I don't think albinos are a result of inbreeding but simply from getting two of the needed genes.

http://gilbertresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/FS7_Albino_Deer.pdf

Later,
Dan

 

[Bob77064]

Great pictures, I have never seen one and we have lots of deer.