I was on Next Door and a user posted this pic of an albino deer he has on his property: This is maybe 20 miles or so from me as the crow flies. Others in the area also saw it last year and were concerned it might not be back...yet here it is. I've never seen an albino anything in the wild. I believe @Von Jones has a white squirrel in her area. Maybe she can post a pic. Has anyone else seen an albino critter (polar bears do not count)?
What a beautiful looking deer, I've never seen an albino wild animal just in photos. We did have a domestic rabbit that must have escaped from his cage running wild for a while, but that doesn't count.
I wonder if your rabbit's genes got passed on in the wild, and if so, did the complete lack of camouflage make them an easy target. And any neighbor who happened to see him during his period of freedom has a "wild albino rabbit" story to tell, huh? I wonder about the albino deer being able to survive. There are more and more stories around here of coyotes moving in and getting more and more aggressive. People are getting more guarded with their chickens. That deer ain't got a chance of hiding.
albino deer is a very rare animal, I got this off the internet: The Odds of Seeing an Albino Deer. Albino white-tailed deer may be neat to see, but did you know that a true albino occurs in only one of out of 100,000 births and very few fawns survive beyond the first year of life? It's absolutely true. I wish there was a way of protecting a beautiful creature like that.
I wonder what they mean by "true albino." Perhaps a white deer with brown eyes (versus pink) does not meet the strict definition. And now I understand why folks did not think they would see the fawn return this year.
If it's the same as rabbits a true albino has pink eyes. I worry about the hunting season that someone doesn't try to make a trophy out of it, it should be protected.
If I saw something like that, I would not feel I had the right to kill it...but I don't hunt, and I've never been starving. Here's what the Virginia Dept of Wildlife Resources has to say about it: "The other kind of white deer are true albinos. Unlike piebald deer, these deer are normal except for lacking the gene(s) for color. True albinos have pink eyes and white hooves. These deer are rare with just a couple killed annually by deer hunters in Virginia. Like piebald deer, albino deer are not afforded any special protection by Department regulation, and the Department does not recommend these animals be protected." This is a piebald deer:
I just put a post for song from RinTinTin TV show called "White Buffalo" sung by James Brown who played Ripley Masters. The White Buffalo seem to fit here.
Remember the Charles Bronson movie where he played Wild Bill Hickok chasing an evil white buffalo? That was a strange one. So in researching this stuff, I discovered that the condition of white critters (or patchy white critters) that are not truly albino (do not have pink eyes) is called "leucism." Lots of genetic conditions fall under that general umbrella (including piebaldism.) I also read that albinism carries an increased risk of hearing (and sometimes vision) disorders in mice, rats, guinea pigs, cats...and buffalo. And some buffalo who are born white may have a rare genetic condition which causes it to be born white, but to become brown within a year or two as it matures. Then there's buffalo whiteness caused by being cross-bred with cattle.
There is a restaurant near here with a picture of a deer like than being leaned over by hunters smiling holding its head up. I thought how could they shoot that. They could not have missed seeing what it was. There is a stop at Mauston Wisconsin Hwy94/82? Where they keep a whole passel of white deer for tourists.
Yeh, I wonder about the source of pride in taking out something so unique. Regarding the herd of albinos...they must be bred for that trait.
Interesting. I've not read about the genetics behind this and whether the offspring of 2 albino parents have a 100% chance/50% chance/25% chance of being albino.
I just read an article saying that white deer are protected in Wisconsin, and in some areas 50% of the deer are white. No one knows exactly why, and--like everything that humans touch--the solution has created a problem, causing some to demand that hunting protections be removed. Citizens continue to have meltdowns when they hear of one being killed.