White deer.

[janedoe]

I've seen two in our local park...different deer, different years....they're really cool.

I thought the first one was someone's escaped pony at first.

We have a huge hound mix down the road whose coloring matches this deer's almost exactly. It's the funniest looking dog and cute as can be. Think hound body and tail with a St Bernard head. I almost got out of the car to take the dog home then I was like, wait a minute. That's a little head.

[IRISHWISTLER]

in relatively built up areas, where no hunting is allowed, i see the piebald as a genetic adaptation to prevent drivers from hitting them. They are amazingly more visable at night. Our deer are harder to shoo away than a cow or horse. The hungry mother deer can hardly move themselves and their fawns so that i can back out of the driveway some years. It freaked me out at first, like a sign of rabies. Nope. They are semiferal, not wild. It is so weird.

based on what?

[Charlotte K.]

based on what?

Personal observation: lack of that color as roadkill and the increasing populations of them. If the piebald pattern were a poor choice for safety in big townships like mine with no hunting allowed for miles, presumably their population would decrease. All bets are off if we get more big coy wolves, who may find them easier to hunt.

[IRISHWISTLER]

Personal observation: lack of that color as roadkill and the increasing populations of them. If the piebald pattern were a poor choice for safety in big townships like mine with no hunting allowed for miles, presumably their population would decrease. All bets are off if we get more big coy wolves, who may find them easier to hunt.

Personal observation of roadkill deer by one investigator is a very small sampling given the total population of deer and the total number of deer struck by motor vehicles. Note that too, many deer struck by motor vehicles do not die on the roadway but off to the side or run into adjacent woodlands and are never quantified into mortality rates originating from motor vehicle impacts. Additionally, many deer struck by MV's sustain non-fatal injuries. It would be interesting to due a study of total whitetails struck by MV's as documented by the DEM and DOT and see what the numbers are for piebald vs normally pigmented whitetails. Of course, one would need to know the approximate incidence of piebaldism within the given population to even approach an indication of any adaptation which would likely be significantly hard to quantify given the changes in the numbers of automobiles being operated having increased with shifts in human populations in said area. Adaptations such as those you are referring to do not happen in short durations of time. The higher mortality of piebalds from predation within the population of total whitetails might also skew the numbers significantly.

Irishwhistler