An extremely rare pair of breeding deer was recently spotted on Long Island, according to reports.
The striking pair of piebald deer, consisting of a buck and a doe, was found within the Long Island Pine Barrens in Suffolk County, Pix11 reported.
Piebald deer — which are born with a rare genetic condition that gives them patches of white hair mixed with their normal brown colored hair — appear in only about 1% of the white-tailed deer population, according to a report for the Southeast Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study.
At least one of the stark white deer with small dark spots has been captured in a series of photographs in a wooded eastern Long Island backyard since December, Newsday reported.
“I was actually shocked when I first saw it,” the resident, Logan K, told CBS New York earlier this month. “It was pretty cool, actually, to know what it was.”
The mystical deer are born when two parents share the rare recessive piebald gene, according to experts.
The deer couple appears in good health and are expected to mate this spring, Pix11 reported.
Some states outlaw shooting piebald deer due to their rarity, and local Long Island experts warned the public to stay away from the creatures and avoid hunting them.
Read the full article here
