# Deerie me, what a sight **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715 "2019-09-05T00:40:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/1 "2019-09-05T00:40:18Z")
I was waiting for Uber outside of work, and I’m absently looking ahead across the street, and I see movement in the trees. A deer. And another deer. And a… huh? What was that? An albino deer? Very hard to see details at that distance. Fours legs, white body-- no wait, white body and _brown head_. I’ve heard of albino animals. I’ve heard of leucistic animals with white fur and normal eyes. But splotchy white patterns are a mutation characteristic of _domestic_ animals. But what else could it be, if not a deer? It sure wasn’t a dog. Someone’s pet goat? What the heck would a random goat be doing there? [Now it was right next to the unquestionably-a-fawn.](https://photos.app.goo.gl/BVXViZZ37Gv5UFBX6) It was the same size, the same shape, walked the same way. My friends, I have a phobia of busy streets. If I can see cars coming, I want nothing to do with the road. I will only cross in the middle at extreme need, and I will be sweating and hyperventilating when I get there. But there was a weird deer to see, there was a break in the traffic, and I _dashed_ to the other side. (spoilers: [it wasn’t a goat](https://photos.app.goo.gl/TWmvA5YnFpHArvrn8)) (normal fawns are brown with white spots. [this one was white with brown spots](https://photos.app.goo.gl/sVrhzkfC7bDPtfWS9). a reverse deer. [a reed](https://photos.app.goo.gl/VM49t8TGBgUmL7qf9)?) Professor Google, self-appointed expert on everything, tells me my exciting freak of nature is not quite as freak as I thought, insofar as they’re a named phenomena. They’re called piebald deer (not to be confused with Piebald the Cat, currently sleeping on my desk). Still fairly rare, though. And still cool to see. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/2 "2019-09-05T00:52:37Z")
What a beautiful creature. Thank you for posting this. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/3 "2019-09-05T01:07:03Z")
I’ve seen them. A few times. Car vs. Deer. My car hit and killed a deer with a large white blotch on his hip. I have no cite for this. Except seasoned deer hunters. The odd coloring comes from over population(of deer) in a given area. Mr.Wrekker has a taxidermied deer head and shoulders that is nearly black. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/4 "2019-09-05T01:08:35Z")
How cool! Thanks for posting this. I’ve seen hundreds, maybe thousands, of deer over my lifetime and never one like that. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/5 "2019-09-05T11:18:52Z")
I’ve seen piebald deer a few times in western PA. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/6 "2019-09-05T13:19:26Z")
I wonder if all the other deer laugh and call it names. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/7 "2019-09-05T13:44:35Z")
> [@Martin Luther Buck](#): > > I have a dream that my four little fawns will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I’ve seen them a few times. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > My car hit and killed a deer with a large white blotch on his hip. > I have no cite for this. The police accident report would work as a cite. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/8 "2019-09-05T14:03:19Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I’ve seen them a few times. Protip: conflating black and “buck”? Not a fortunate combination. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/9 "2019-09-05T15:17:16Z")
That’s why it wasn’t in the quote. What was _meant_ is that I’ve seen piebald deer a few times. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/10 "2019-09-05T20:34:31Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I wonder if all the other deer laugh and call it names. Not so much, but he is pretty sick of hearing “When come back bring pie baldy!” ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/11 "2019-09-05T21:13:01Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I’ve seen them a few times. > > The police accident report would work as a cite. 😉 I see what you did there:) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deerie-me-what-a-sight/839715/12 "2019-09-05T21:57:24Z")
They’ve become somewhat common in central New York. There was a large military storage depot in the Finger Lakes region. It had a lot of land but not a lot of military activity. So there were plenty of deer living on the property. Some of the deer developed white fur. They weren’t albinos; they just had white patches that covered most of their body. The local commander issued orders that while people could hunt the regularly colored deer, the white deer could not be shot. And natural selection took its course and the number of white deer increased. > **[Seneca white deer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_white_deer)** > > The Seneca white deer are a rare herd of deer living within the confines of the former Seneca Army Depot in Seneca County, New York. When the 10,600-acre (43 km2) depot was created in 1941, a 24-mile (39 km) fence was erected around its perimeter, isolating a small herd of white-tailed deer, some of which had white coats. These deer are not albino, but instead have leucism, which is an abnormal genetic condition that carries a set of recessive genes for all-white coats. While little is known Th...