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white-tailed deer with piebald coloring

Odocoileus virginianus

Description:

Piebald is the term given to deer that are brown and white in color, similar to a pinto pony. Unlike albinos, which do not produce any pigment, some of the cells in piebald deer produce a color pigment called melanin. Although rare, piebald deer possess a recessive trait that is more prevalent in overpopulated deer herds. This genetic condition typically occurs in less than one percent of the population.

Habitat:

Although most often thought of as forest animals depending on relatively small openings and edges, white-tailed deer can equally adapt themselves to life in more open prairie, savanna woodlands, and sage communities as in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. These savanna-adapted deer have relatively large antlers in proportion to their body size and large tails. Also, a noticeable difference exists in size between male and female deer of the savannas. The Texas white-tailed deer (O. v. texanus), of the prairies and oak savannas of Texas and parts of Mexico, are the largest savanna-adapted deer in the Southwest, with impressive antlers that might rival deer found in Canada and the northern United States. Populations of Arizona (O. v. couesi) and Carmen Mountains (O. v. carminis) white-tailed deer inhabit montane mixed oak and pine woodland communities.[20] The Arizona and Carmen Mountains deer are smaller, but may also have impressive antlers, considering their size. The white-tailed deer of the Llanos region of Colombia and Venezuela (O. v. apurensis and O. v. gymnotis) have antler dimensions similar to the Arizona white-tailed deer.

Notes:

Young deer found along a stream after a flood. I believe it may have been sick I went back the next day to see if it had found its mom and it was breathing hard and died within half an hour

1 Species ID Suggestions

piebald white-tailed deer
Odocoileus virginianus White-tailed deer


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2 Comments

247hook
247hook 9 years ago

Wow that's really cool he had an unusual variation I had never heard of that. Its neat

247hook
Spotted by
247hook

New York, USA

Spotted on Jul 10, 2014
Submitted on Nov 18, 2014

Spotted for Mission

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