Albino Fawn

"A very eventful day around here ....... a once in
many lifetimes experience! Mark saw this lil' feller
run out in front of a car, thought it was a lost baby
goat. Stopped to get it, and WOW, a real Albino
Whitetail Deer. Just hours old, but doing fine. No
Mama deer around. Another car nearly hit it in front
of Mark .....

Well, he is THE neatest thing any of us ever saw.
And such a 'freak of nature' that only 1 in more than
a million are even born.

He took his bottle of food, followed us around the
house, doing great. So, we called the Zoo & Fossil
Rim, who were both interested, but going to send
him to a Rehab farm, at a vet that we have never
gotten along with .....

So, one of Dad's best friends is our Game Warden.
Kinda reluctantly I called him and told him the deal.
He came right over, of course ..... and assured me
that he wouldn't take it to that vet, that he was going
to 'go to higher levels' than that with him ......

So, he is gone now.

We got a lot of pix, and something we will never see
again probably, so it was very cool. Maybe he will
make it in captivity somewhere and be appreciated.
So rare ..... Sure wanted to keep him tho. but,
not the thing to do. And not LEGAL either. But, here
are a couple of the pix to show ya.

He was snow white, pink eyes, ears, nose and
hooves. Kids called him POWDER. He was SO
small. That is my shoe lying beside
him ..... WOW ..... how cool is that??

Pass this around, a lot of folks have never,
and probably will never, see even another picture of
an Albino deer fawn ......

Jackie / Illinois

Albino:
Among the questions most often asked are
"What causes some deer to be albinos?"
"How common are they?" "Are they protected?"
and "Can they reproduce?"

Albinism is a recessive trait found in mammals, birds,
reptiles, fish and even plants. These plants and
animals do not have the gene for normal colouration
and do not produce the enzyme responsible for skin,
hair and tissue colouration. Albinism is the total
absence of body pigment. The eyes of an albino are
pink, because blood vessels behind the lenses show
through the unpigmented irises. As you might guess,
albinism is not a desirable trait for either predators or
prey species. Being totally white year round makes
concealment difficult. Also, many albinos have poor
eyesight. In the game of life, where survival of the
fittest is the rule, albinos have a strike against them
from the start. Perhaps that is why albinos are rare.

Because albinism is a recessive trait, both parents
must carry the gene before it can occur in their
offspring. An albino deer bred to another albino
would have only albinos. An albino bred to a normal
deer with no recessive genes for albinism would
produce all normally pigmented deer. Offspring from
this cross would carry the recessive gene for
albinism but would be normally coloured. When
carriers of albinism breed there is a one in four
chance they will produce an albino fawn. Recessive
genetic traits typically become less common unless
they confer a survival advantage or are artificially
enhanced through selective breeding.

Based on hunter reports, about one deer in 30,000
is an albino. Not all white deer are true albinos. Some
white whitetails have normally pigmented noses,
eyes and hooves. This is a genetic mutation for hair
colour but not other pigments.

Melanistic:
Melanistic deer are very dark sometimes even black.
Melanism results from overproduction of pigment and
is less common than albinism. Hunters see dark deer
with some frequency but to actually see a Melanistic
deer is rare.

Protecting albinos, piebald and melanistic deer from
hunting would have no biological impact and probably
would not result in an increase of these traits.

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