What are folks thoughts on the albino?

timekiller13

Old Mossy Horns
It’s a deer, with no melanin. Just like any other creature with no melanin. They thought white buffalos were magical, and I’m sure with no scientific explanation, they were. Now that we have an explanation...they’re just animals like any other 🤷🏼‍♂️. I guess everybody need something to believe in though.
I understand completely why they are white and I know its just a genetic mutation. Still not messing around with it.

Go dig up and an old Native American burial ground and let me know how that goes for ya!!!
 

Justin

Old Mossy Horns
I understand completely why they are white and I know its just a genetic mutation. Still not messing around with it.

Go dig up and an old Native American burial ground and let me know how that goes for ya!!!

Not in the habit of unearthing the dead, but not from a superstition stand point. Mostly respect and legality.... that said, the acidic soils of the SE dissolve most bones these days
 

Moran

Four Pointer
Strange thing this topic coming up today. I'll give fair warning, this will be a long story. On December 17, 1988 (32 years ago today) I was working at Carnivore Preservation Trust near Pittsboro and had a white deer encounter. If you've ever heard tigers or jaguars roar when you're hunting or fishing off Robeson Creek, it's not your imagination. They live in the compound off Hanks Chapel Road near the lake. Anyway, that morning we got a call from some women who lived below Pea Ridge Road who had seen a pack of feral dogs chase a white deer into Jordan Lake. The deer tried to get away from the dogs, but they'd follow it along the bank. The deer kept swimming in circles in the cold water and was getting tired. The women got an inflatable raft and paddled it out to the middle of the lake and rescued the deer. The albino doe was cold and limp, exhausted from the chase & swim. The women carried the white doe to a horse barn one of them owned, set her on some hay, and started calling around looking to help the doe.

The Wildlife people basically said: It's a wild deer, they're not endangered, let nature take its course.
Next, they called the Forestry Service, who said: We do trees, not animals. Try somebody else.
Next, they called a local veterinarian who said : We don't treat wild animals, Maybe the folks at the Cat Ranch could help you?

The director asked me and a female volunteer to ride over to assess the doe's condition and to bring her back to the compound if she could be saved. He also had me take along my Buck 110 to slit her throat (away from the women) if she was injured beyond recovery.

I found the doe on her side in a horse stall. She was extremely weak and cold. I felt her gums and close to her heart and was surprised how cold she was. I tried to stand her up, but she was stiff and didn't have good balance. When I lifted her front legs off the ground, she was able to drive with her hind legs, so I knew she didn't have a spinal injury. I figured she was just in shock and needed something to eat and to go somewhere to warm up.

When we got back to the compound I broke out my sleeping bag and brought her inside to warm up by the wood stove near the kitchen. She was still really weak & cold. I went out to the front fence and pulled down a washtub full of honeysuckle for her to eat. I also sliced up a couple of apples for her and filled a small bowl with water. I sat and hung out with her to see what she might do. If she died, I planned to feed much of her to the tigers, jaguars, and leopards. She gradually warmed up and started looking around, I'm sure wondering where she was. I tried to give her apples (she'd probably never seen one before), but when I offered her honeysuckle, she hit it like a buzz saw. Before long she stood up, but didn't move for about 15 minutes, just looked around. She walked over to me and the washtub and chowed down on more of the honeysuckle. Everyone else had either left or gone to bed, so it was just me and the white doe hanging out together. I felt her ears and side and she was warm again. She was having a hard time walking around on the tile floor, but had gotten her balance back. Around 2:30 a.m. she plopped down on the sleeping bag by the fire with her legs curled under her, so I went off to bed.

Very early the next morning (My Birthday, Dec. 18th) I could hear her hooves on the tile floor in the kitchen. When I came down the stairs, she walked right up to me like a dog might and smelled me again. I feared that once she regained her strength, she might freak out & tear up the house or try to jump through a window or something. No such thing. She calmly walked around kinda acting like she was looking for something. I ran a big bowl of water for her and she slurped down about 1/3 of it. She'd eaten every bit of the honeysuckle. As other people came into the kitchen and into the house, she started moving away from them, but she never feared me or tried to get away from me. The manager there named her Jane Doe, since nobody knew anything about her. We decided that she probably needed another day or two to regain her strength before we released her, so we turned her out inside the compound fence. It is a 12 foot high perimeter fence that encloses something like 55 acres with smaller cages that hold the Cats. I'm sure that deer didn't know what in the world to think, because as soon as she started trotting down the gravel road, every time she passed by a cage, tigers, or leopards, or caracals, or lynxes were lunging at her trying to get through their chain link fences. She went to the thickest cover away from the cats and hung out there, eating honeysuckle that probably hadn't been touched for 10 years.

Two days later, I called a buddy of mine who lives out off the Rocky River and he gave us permission to turn her loose out there. It is some very big woods out that way and he owned & leased around 400 acres of it at the time. Just like before, nobody else could get close to her, but I could walk right up to her and touch her without her acting scared. It was almost like she sensed I was trying to help her. We drove the Trooper down where she liked to hang out and corralled her. I had her laid across my lap with her front legs tied and back legs tied with belts for the ride, She didn't like being restrained, but she also didn't freak out as bad as I expected as we drove her towards her new home. We turned her out in the property owner's clover patch, but she headed down towards the river. The land owner saw her multiple times during and after that deer season, then saw a white doe with a white fawn the next Spring. There still may be some offspring in that area, though we haven't talked about it in a few years.

Even though it was just a deer, it made a connection with me and acted surprisingly calm around me. It was a cool experience and may have been the best part of my 28th birthday.

Jim
Really good reading she trusted you is really great feeling for both of you I know that you will never forget that
 

DRS

Old Mossy Horns
I have let it walk, when I had the chance. More so to let the button head grow and see what he would become. Well, as suppose to he dispersed at 1.5 years old and we don't know what happened to him. Never heard of any one killing him. Now, I know a couple of people that killed one. One no longer hunts and really went crazy. The other said there was no way he would ever shot another. I'm not superstitious to that point but it sure makes me scratch my head. Ain't sure I would want to test it either.
 

DRS

Old Mossy Horns
Back in 2009 my Dad started getting trail cam pics of this little cowhorn albino buck, and he wanted to get him BAD! For some reason, he thought of that deer like most deer hunters would think of a 160-inch buck. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, for sure.

Meanwhile, everybody he talked to about it warned him that it was bad luck to kill an albino deer. Not being a superstitious guy, he proceeded to pursue the buck without caution. One morning during that muzzleloader season, he got his chance at the deer and made good on it. The date was November 13th, 2009...and yes, it was a Friday. :eek:

He called me and I drove over and met him. We trailed the deer up pretty quick and I congratulated him and he notched a tag, etc., and I proceeded to take pics, as usual. While we were fiddling around, taking pics, and enjoying my Dad's accomplishment....I noticed movement through the woods and my Dad and I paused for a minute or so......while a BLACK CAT :eek: casually strolled by us and slowly faded out of sight..... right there in the middle of the woods. I kid you not!

As I mulled the sequence of events over in my head, I thought hmm........ My Dad had just killed an albino deer.....on Friday the 13th.....and a black frickin' cat just walked right by us while we were taking pics. Welp! I looked over at my Dad...who was a near-fatal heart attack survivor and long-term heart patient....a man who had been on borrowed time really for many, many years....and I said to him "you better make dang sure you live at least a year after this or everybody is for sure going to pin it on this deer!"

And so he did. He managed to scratch out a little over 4 more years before passing in January 2014 at age 78. I figured 4 years was long enough for the statute of limitations to have expired on all the bad omens we experienced on that day. Who knows though, maybe had he not killed that deer he'd have lived an additional year or two? But, I guarantee you he would have gladly traded them for the happiness we got out of him bagging that little white buck, on Friday the 13th.
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Thanks for sharing.
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
I understand completely why they are white and I know its just a genetic mutation. Still not messing around with it.

Go dig up and an old Native American burial ground and let me know how that goes for ya!!!
you have so much free time now i am sure you have spare reading time. :)
Check out some of Tom Brown's books related to his "upbringing "by a Native American.
Brown used to run survival and tracking schools.
He found a little girl in guilford county once that authorities had searched for for weeks.
His stuff is "way out there" but fun and informative to anyone that wants to improve outdoor skills.

He takes no stand on albino deer. :)
 

Duc90

Button Buck
"Actually bad for the heard" Biologist said if you get the chance to take them out it would be a good thing. Legs are usually deformed/shorter with messed up hoofs. Killed one decent 8pt legs were not normal size
 

Duc90

Button Buck
"Actually bad for the heard" Biologist said if you get the chance to take them out it would be a good thing. Legs are usually deformed/shorter with messed up hoofs. Killed one decent 8pt legs were not normal size
Herd sorry
 

Hunting Nut

Old Mossy Horns
"Actually bad for the heard" Biologist said if you get the chance to take them out it would be a good thing. Legs are usually deformed/shorter with messed up hoofs. Killed one decent 8pt legs were not normal size

That's correct. Usually short legged. Some maintain a diminuative body. Most have poor eyesight.
Their noses ? Can't be beat.
 

41magnum

Twelve Pointer
Around here they do not last more than two or three years. But no Hunter kills them that we know since all the landowners talk openly. We all think the coyotes get them since they like the natural camo their brethren have
 

DBCooper

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
"Actually bad for the heard" Biologist said if you get the chance to take them out it would be a good thing. Legs are usually deformed/shorter with messed up hoofs. Killed one decent 8pt legs were not normal size

Please explain how (exactly) they are bad for the herd.

The recessive gene is 1:30000 and must be carried by dame and sire. They’re an oddity for a reason. It’s not like they’re going to invade a herd.
 

ahales

Four Pointer
Friend of my brother sent him a pic of this one back in November. I think I’d be hard pressed to let him walk.
 

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pcbuckhunter

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
"Actually bad for the heard" Biologist said if you get the chance to take them out it would be a good thing. Legs are usually deformed/shorter with messed up hoofs. Killed one decent 8pt legs were not normal size
It’s my understanding from listening to several well known biologists on the subject of piebalds and albinos that that is generally considered outdated thinking.

It’s widely accepted that they pose no viable threat to overall herd health. No more so than a human with albinism poses a threat to the health of the human population.
 

Lowg08

Ten Pointer
This according to Matthew Henry commentary. My main area of theological study is apologetic’s. If you were Hindu or of some of the many other ism’s that relate to the animal world. Sure you could make it stick. Biblical theology no.
 

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Dick

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
heading up 13 from cbbt there was a herd of deer out in a field and 4 of them looked black. It was a rainy day about 3pm. my daughter swears there were 4 black deer. I did see several very dark deer.
 

Duc90

Button Buck
Please explain how (exactly) they are bad for the herd.

The recessive gene is 1:30000 and must be carried by dame and sire. They’re an oddity for a reason. It’s not like they’re going to invade a herd.
Sorry if i was wrong i asked the question in a q&a session to a Biologist that our club had researching the number of does we needed to harvest. I thought he probably was up on his information this was also before Google
 

DBCooper

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Sorry if i was wrong i asked the question in a q&a session to a Biologist that our club had researching the number of does we needed to harvest. I thought he probably was up on his information this was also before Google

I'm not against taking them....as I've taken a piebald....and let others walk. What I didn't do is take the piebald to help the herd. I took him because I like eating deer....and his hide looks pretty cool - tanned and on my game room wall.
 

JONOV

Old Mossy Horns
Can't say if I'd pull the trigger or not. The only one I've seen was near either Harris or Falls, I was driving.
 

Mack in N.C.

Old Mossy Horns
I have passed on a couple , mainly because they were waaaaay too small(young) but I have seen them in Wake, Caswell, orange , Chatham , Craven and Pittslvania..... probably seen 40-50 in my life but most of the time I was without gun, Hiking fishing etc.

My best story on them is that my family had two tracts of land on the haw river. One where we lived and 1 4 miles downstream. My friends called the lower tract "the Zoo" cause you would see so many deer and game. Nothing to see 30 deer a day. The tract at the house was loaded as well and it had an Albino Doe and Piebald 6 pter whom later became an 8pter. There were there for 4-5 years.......I wanted to shoot the buck Bad. REAL BAD. But, one problem. they stayed in the yard alot and my mom loved to just sit in the living room and watch them. Her words to me were to not kill either. if I did kill one her exact words were "if you kill either one of them you will never ever hunt a piece of land I own, even if you are my son" (I was her favorite) lol.........You know what mack did??? Mack watched those two many many times . My mom meant everything she always said so I listened to mom. My buddy sent me a video the other day on Facebook with 9 deer running out of my old front yard and accross the street to the other side which we owned. I will see if I can post that but I will post the only Albino I have on Video.

 
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