Piebald Deer

Guy Miner

Master Loader
Apr 6, 2006
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Photographed this piebald mule deer doe this morning, from my kayak. She's on an island in the Columbia River. Part of a small herd of deer. She wasn't particularly worried about the old guy in the kayak, cruising past, snapping photos. :grin:

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Guy, I took a 6 point piebold Whitetail buck in Maine back in the mid 80's. When I first saw him I didn't know whether it was a cow or deer. Very interesting to have one of those walking through the woods. I had the hide tanned with the hair on and it's on display in our living room. Get a lot of comments on "what is that"!
 
There is a nice size herd of them in up state New York on a gov instillation. I can't remember the name of the town but I almost wrecked my truck the first time I saw them roaming around inside the fence.
Great picture Guy.
 
truck driver":2lhjldk0 said:
There is a nice size herd of them in up state New York on a gov instillation. I can't remember the name of the town but I almost wrecked my truck the first time I saw them roaming around inside the fence.
Great picture Guy.

This is in line with what I've seen. I first saw piebald deer in Maryland, on an isolated Navy base. The herd there was small and had limited interaction with the surrounding deer population thanks to a tall chain link fence topped by barbed wire. That small, somewhat isolated population had quite a few piebald deer and there was a photo of an all white, or nearly all white buck that had lived there several years earlier.

This little gal I photographed yesterday is in a small herd, maybe 12 - 20 deer, on an island in the Columbia River. They CAN swim to shore, but I don't think they do very often. It's deep and a bit of a ways. There's no hunting or even hiking allowed on the island, it's essentially just a little nature sanctuary with a small, isolated mule deer population.

I'm no genetics guru, but I'm thinking this piebald stuff is likely a recessive gene, and in-breeding of the small herds produces at least some of these piebald deer.

Guy
 
Guy that was probably the Patuxent Navy air station down at point look out in the mouth of the Potomac river. Though there is also a Navel weapons research center just off the Potomac also.
There is another base on the upper Chesapeake that I delivered to heating oil to but can't remember it's name.

Every now and then we see a few piebalds around where I live but they don't last long since someone will kill them for a trophy instead of letting them populate.
 
Guy I was up in PA today and saw this on display and thought you might like it.
Piebald White Tail Buck.
 

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I've only seen one, it was a doe after deer season about 25-30 years ago. Pretty cool to see. Great picture Guy.

JD338
 
truck driver":wvfxgxmo said:
Guy I was up in PA today and saw this on display and thought you might like it.
Piebald White Tail Buck.

TD - that's a very cool buck! Thanks.
 
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