This may have been a first for me, if I had ever seen another Piebald deer it was when I was young and do not remember it. This was taken the first morning at SNP durring the rut and was my first shutter release of the day. The way the morning started had me excited about the trip. Deer right away as I entered the park, a buck a short distance later and once the sun began to come up deer close by. As I started driving I encountered this buck with another small buck plying around with there antlers locked up. I did not get a shot at that but after getting out of the truck and cranking up the ISO I did get a few of this Piebald. Piebalds are rare typically occurring in less than 1% of the deer. They are more common in areas like this where they are protected from hunters. I was told that there is at least two piebald does in the park also, one known as Dottie that is around the Skyland area is may be as old as 13 years. The piebald coat ranges from a very slight amount of white hair to almost totally white coats. Unlike true albinos, piebald deer have brown eyes and black hooves. The piebald condition is frequently associated with other harmful physical conditions, including skeletal deformities (e.g., dorsal bowing of the nose, short/deformed legs, curved spine, short lower mandible, etc.) and internal organ deformities.
Today is Tuesday but then I guess you already knew that so you know what I am about to say next. Visit Shane's blog for a new post.
6 comments:
I have never heard of a pirbald deer. It is a neat picture. Like your deer pictures in SNP. Keep up the great job.
Don't you love finding the rarities? The interesting markings, especially the black ones accenting the white, are so cool! It will be interesting to see this guy next year, and how his antlers grow in!
I never heard of that type of deer. Cool Photo Brad
I would like to share this photo with my family during Christmas. My attempt to photograph him resulted in a poor out-of-focus blunder. Very informative blog! A grand specimen of a piebald.
Nice work Brad. That was a good early morning encounter. Good information on the piebald condition as well. I remember some years ago when we had a local piebald buck. He was a small deer even when 3.5 years old with a small 6pt rack. The hunter who shot him that year later told me that a PGC aging team put him at 6.5 yrs (tooth wear). Since we had known this buck since he was a fawn I must assume that his teeth had worn more quickly than the average deer.
Hey Brad! You won't believe it but I saw this same buck today at SNP near Big Meadows! I thought of this post immediately and could not wait to get to a computer and confirm it was him. I was not so lucky as to get a good shot as he was definately not interested in being photographed today but I think I got a few good enough to confirm it was the same buck. I will post photos when I get back either tomorrow or early Saturday. Thanks for all your informative posts... I was able to tell Anthony all about piebald's while we were looking at him thanks to you!
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