Yesterday I was out roaming in the local woods, and received the shock of my life in regard to wildlife.

I surprised what I thought at first was a blacktail doe. As she leaped up the road bank, I was shocked to see a big white rear end--it was not a deer at all! It was an elk. Or was it? No, I decided, an elk makes a lot more noise than that animal. Naturally, I was thinking all this, and simultaneously raising my binoculars to my eyes.

Hmmm! It was certainly something white--no, it was spotted with brown. My first reaction was thinking "Oh, someone's Appaloosa horse has gotten loose, and is running around wild".

Then, with astonishment, I realised that I was looking at a piebald fawn. The fawn was completely white from the shoulders on back, with little brown spots along the side, and on the hindquarters. It really did look just like a little 'blanket' Appaloosa.

I watched the doe (which was completely normal looking) and fawn for about ten minutes, after which the doe decided to tiptoe off into the brush.

No photos, sorry! My husband had the camera that day.

The second strange occurence happened less than an hour later. I was just finishing my walk, when I spotted a buck (male deer) in the road ahead of me. Strange, his head looked quite fuzzy. Oh, he was still in the velvet! At this time of year, the male deer should have rubbed off the velvet a few months ago. However, a buck which has been rendered sterile (usually by disease) can become what is known here as a 'cactus' buck. If the buck has become sterile whilst the antlers are still growing and in the velvet, it will never lose the velvet, and the antlers do not shed in the fall, but the animal retains the antlers until it dies.

Strange, strange day.

Anyone ever see the local equivalent of either of these two odd sightings?

Kingfisher

hi kingfisher
on one large estate locally you see pure white roe deer quite often they have been seen over the last 15 years so they are passing this though the genes to the net generation, there are roe,muntjac, red, fallow,and chinese water deer on this estate but it seems like only roe deer have this albinoism.

Interesting!

There is a well known herd of white fallow deer in California, which apparently were to be exterminated as of this year (fallow deer are not native to California). But, they are not albinos.

Kingfisher

Skip, reliably informs me that we had a wild white roe deer on the moors above Bolton for many years. He says it was in the museum for some years after it died.

Unfortunately the only white deer I know of was a white stag (Red Deer) on the Devon & Cornwall boarders which was shot by poachers in the beginning of this week. For 9 years this beautiful stag was kept secret by locals, farmers & gamekeepers alike, only for it to be found headless in it's favoured field. So I wonder where that particular head is going to turn up on someones wall mount above their mantle piece?! It's sickening. The gamekeepers wouldn't touch it as they saw it as being sacred.

Skylark, that is sad. I would imagine that the local taxidermists would have been notified, and that the person responsible will be caught. There's no way someone could do that and not resist mentioning it to his acquaintances--what's the point otherwise? It's like stolen artwork, eventually someone sees it and the thief gets turned in.

Kingfisher

That's disgusting. I hate it when people cherish something & then some oddball turns up & destroys it. They are usually from out of the area.

Skylark that is absolutely terrible, I don't know how people can be so cold hearted.

There is a herd of white deer in Surrey near Dunsfold, they are quite a sight to see.

Update:

For those of you who are curious about my piebald deer, I have a photo (probably the father of the fawn) of a very similar one in my blog.

However, it is a photo of a dead deer, so it is not for the squeamish.

As I explained in my blog, I was told by the hunters that there are at least two other deer with this pattern, and one of the hunters had seen the same fawn as I had.

Kingfisher

Hey thanks for all of your comments, the culprits haven't been found yet, but there is a brighter bit of news - a new white deer calf has been sighted in the area:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7073122.stm

And if he's a stag, all is almost saved. Let's hope this one is going to be safe this time.