[TexAg]

Anyone ever see or shoot a white tail deer with a spotted coat? I'm not talking albino or fawn spot but a 2ish year old buck with regular deer skin color but transitioning to white toward the rear with spots, almost like a paint horse? Honestly its color looked more like a calf at first.

[Husker1911]

Possibly a fallow deer. Protected here in Nebraska, I've yet to see one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallow_Deer

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c248/Husker1911/fallow_deer_group.jpg

[janobles14]

if you are serious about seeing this deer you must call your local game management agency! chances are that its a fallow, but if its not then it could be a VERY rare species that some thought to be extinct (akin to "old horses" with zebra, okapi, or modern horse (not "kin" btw)).

does it have a large bump or ridge on its "muzzle"?

or it could be some kind of half albino thing....lol. im currently looking for the thing im talking about.

[nathan]

Fallow deer, that be great eating venison. They are cute as well.

[TexAg]

Ok I read now it is called a piebald. Not as rare as albinism but pretty rare. Search google and you can find some pics. Some call it pinto also. I'll try and post my pics this weekend.

[Bigreno]

Maybe something like the pics below? These are all farm raised but it does happen in the wild as well. Pretty rare though.

[janobles14]

piebald? gah...i thought you were going for the once spotted species (in kentucky as a matter of fact) that hasnt been seen in 60 years or so. crap...

oh well...still cant shoot it i think.

[paintballdude902]

a guy took one for a local big game hunt it had a white face 5 point rack white butt and a spotted body weighed 110lbs

[countertop]

I don't know how rare piebald's are. When I went out a couple of weeks ago, I saw 3 or four of them. All does. Was looking for a buck, or I'd have taken one.

[TexAg]

Countertop, are you sure you were not seeing fallow deer? There were apparently a bunch of those running around GA after some had been imported and escaped.

[skinewmexico]

Could have been an Axis. Lots of Axis free-ranging in Texas. More than in their native country.

[Loyalist Dave]

I don't shoot pie-balds out here in MD. The two I have seen may be seen about 100 yards away in the woods, and always seem to be with normal pigment white tails, which I can't see at 100 yards. The pie bald lets me know she's in the area, with friends, and sometime she walks my way bringing her friends with her..., so I gladly shoot one of her companions. If I shot her..., my early warning system for incoming deer would be dead..., I wonder if that's the true root of the superstition of not killing "white stags" etc???

LD

[countertop]

TexAG,

No, I was hunting in Eastern NC. The area had a lot of them, and I only found out later they were trying to cut the numbers down. Guy who'se property I was on (who has a background in animal husbandry and livestock agriculture) said it was a genetic defect related to inbreeding amongst their deer herd.

Apparantly they were a problem, and were predominantly does (he had seen only one piebald buck but dozens of does.

[Speedo66]

Then there are the all white Seneca deer, found on the former Seneca Army base near Seneca, NY.

White deer were breeding in fenced in army base, to the point there are whole herds of pure white deer.

http://senecawhitedeer.org/