A rare spotted bald deer, also known as the leucistic deer, was recently spotted in southern Maine. Kevin Fowler, a retired photojournalist with Total Coverage of Maine, shared this video of the deer. Spotted baldness is a rare genetic disease that causes deer to have patches of white hair, large and small, randomly mixed into their normal brown coat color. Some spotted deer may only have a few external signs of the condition, such as small patches of white fur. Some, like the one Fowler found, may be mostly white. This mutation causes random patches of skin to lack the specialized pigment cells that give deer’s fur its color. Even the skin beneath the white fur has no color. This is different from albinism, where the animal has pigment cells but a genetic defect prevents these cells from producing color, causing the entire animal to turn white. Albino deer have pink eyes due to a complete lack of pigment, while bald deer have normal colored eyes. Fowler said he also spotted a scarlet deer in Eastport last fall. Some of the genes that cause these changes in coat color also control other physical characteristics, and some bald deer are born with mild to severe skeletal deformities. Deer born with mild symptoms of this rare condition often lead normal lives. They are also mostly white, and some have noticeable problems such as dwarfism or arched spines. Baldness is a recessive trait, meaning both parents must carry the recessive gene for a fawn to be born with baldness. “Although baldness is reported to affect less than 1% of the white-tailed deer population, hunting restrictions for deer affected by the baldness trait may vary by region,” Melanie Kunkel and Nicole Nemeth, Ph.D., wrote in a report for the Southeastern Cooperative. Research on wildlife diseases. “After temporary hunting restrictions, prevalence reached nearly 2% in some populations.” Across the entire whitetail range, about 1 in 1,000 deer have patchy hair loss, but an estimated 1 in 30,000 deer may be albino, and even fewer deer have melanosis.
A rare spotted deer, also known as the leucistic deer, was recently spotted in southern Maine.
Kevin Fowler, a retired photojournalist with Total Coverage of Maine, shared video of the deer.
Spotted alopecia is a rare genetic disease that causes deer to have gray patches of varying sizes randomly intermixed with their normal brown coat color. Some spotted deer may only have a few external signs of the condition, such as small patches of white fur. Some, like the one Fowler discovered, are mostly white.
This mutation causes random spots on the skin to lack the specialized pigment cells that give deer’s fur its color. Even the skin beneath the white fur has no color. This is different from albinism, where the animal has pigment cells but a genetic defect prevents these cells from producing color, causing the entire animal to turn white. Albino deer have pink eyes due to a complete lack of pigment, while spotted deer have normal eyes.
Fowler said she also saw a blue deer in Eastport last fall.
Some of the genes that cause these coat color changes also control other physical characteristics, and some bald deer are born with mild to severe skeletal deformities. Deer born with mild symptoms of this rare condition often lead normal lives. They are also mostly white, and some have noticeable problems such as dwarfism or arched spines.
Spotted baldness is a recessive trait, meaning both parents must carry the recessive gene for a spotted fawn to be possible.
“Spot disease is reported to affect less than 1% of the white-tailed deer population, but may vary by region due to different hunting restrictions for deer affected by the spotted trait,” Melanie Kunkel, Ph.D., and Nicole Nemeth, Ph.D., wrote in a report from the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Research. “After temporary hunting restrictions, prevalence reached nearly 2% in some populations.”
Across the whitetail range, approximately 1 in 1,000 deer have patchy fur, an estimated 1 in 30,000 may be albino, and even fewer are melanistic.
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