John sent this photo and asked: “Mike have you seen this one? Supposedly shot last fall in Appomattox County in your home state of VA. “
I hadn’t seen it, but what a cool piebald buck! Check the mass of those antlers. Interesting to me that the snow-white deer was able to survive 3 or 4 years in that brown-green VA habitat that gets virtually no snow in the winter.
I have seen 6 piebald deer in the 31 years I have been deer hunting. I haven’t pulled the trigger on 1, but a friend of mine shot a 10 pointer in the late 80’s. I have to admit, I have never seen a piebald with a pink nose. I believe that this buck is a true albino. I have seen albino raccoons and an albino squirrel. All had pindk eyes and everything else looked a light yellow. They had no faces when they looked at you since the pink blended in with the yellowish fur. pretty striking.
I love this blog!!!… I am too old to remember the head stains. Re-educating me daily.
The pink eyes and nose are strong indicators that it is an albino.
Do all the cool deer come out of VA?
I’m with Josh and Mack. That’s not a piebald, that’s an albino. Forehead staining is from rubbing. Looks solid white elsewhere with pink eyes and nose. That’s almost certainly an albino.
Nice post. It don’t get much cooler than that!! Looks like a straight-up albino, though. The brown isn’t actually its hair color on the forehead. The white hair actually gets stained from a combination of rubbing and gland secretions, so hence, the brown coloration in that area. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s my knowledge of albino bucks.
There’s a big pie-bald doe that lives by exit 17 on the NY State thruway that I have been seeing for the past 2 years. I saw her about a month ago and was glad she was still around. I don’t think there is hunting allowed on that piece of property. I also once saw a doe-fawn pie-bald many years agout while in stand on my property but didn’t have the heart to take her. I was hoping she’d stick around and get grow up. I find pie-palds so fascinating. Truly beautiful.
Really neat- I can only see the brown fur on his head. Anybody else think it may be an albino? Pink nose- and looks like he may have pink eveys too?!
Mack.
I see what your saying.
If its not considered an albino. It’s as close as it could get without actually being one.
Maybe there is more brown hair on it that we can’t see from the pic. But I doubt it.
Incredible deer for sure.
My brother shot a piebald doe a few years back. It’s about 80% white. He had a full body mount. Here in michigan I believe it’s illegal to shoot a 100% albino deer.
That buck is simply amazing! I’m with Paul on hoping to one day shoot a pie-bald or albino. I’ve never seen one in the stand, but used to drive by a field in MS that always had two albino’s feeding in it.
That’s a cool looking buck. I’d love to shoot a pie-bald deer one day. From what I understand a pie-bald deer occurs 1 in every 35,000 deer. I think I read that in a Leonard Lee Rue book.