Kelly Daniels and her husband experienced a rare wildlife sighting while driving near their home in East Troy, Wis., Friday evening.
As they were driving along Highway J around 8 p.m., Daniels said she spotted something bright white munching on grass behind a brush pile just off the road. It was an all-white buck ― sporting white, felted antlers.
Daniels and her husband turned their car around and stopped to look at the deer, which she said remained there for about 45 minutes as they observed it from their vehicle. Daniels said she’s seen white does in the area near Mukwonago’s Elegant Farmer bakery and market for about a decade, but never a buck.
“It was just so beautiful to see,” she said. “And it’s old, you can tell it’s old because of its antlers. So, he’s been around a while. This was something super amazing to see, and we were lucky enough to catch it on camera.”
How rare are white deer?
There are two reasons a deer could appear all-white: either the animal has albinism, a condition that leaves it completely absent of body pigment meaning it’s entirely white with pink eyes, nose and hooves; or the deer is “piebald,” meaning it’s mostly or partially white with some brown hair. According to WorldDeer.org, piebalds can range from nearly all-white with a few brown spots to mostly brown with some white patches.
Daniels said she was too far from the buck to determine whether it was albino or piebald.
Both piebaldness and albinism are caused by recessive genes, meaning they’re quite rare. Piebaldness is slightly more common, affecting less than 2% of white-tailed deer, while albinism affects less than 1 in 20,000 ― or 0.005% of the population.
Are white deer protected in Wisconsin?
It is illegal to hunt, kill or possess albino deer or deer that are all-white or almost all white except for “the tarsal glands, head or parts of the head,” without written authorization from the Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin law states. This means all albino and some piebald deer are protected.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: See video of a rare ‘albino’ buck spotted in East Troy this weekend
Source Agencies
