These pictures are from a camera trapping project that Dave and I were working on back in NC. The photos are from last year. Been saving them for a time when I was swamped and couldn't get to the blog for a while.
The landowner told me she had an albino White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on-site. It didn't take us long to get photos of it.
It did take some time to get nice daytime shots, though.....
Obviously, albino critters are neat...and lots of folks "oohhh" and "aahhh" over them (especially deer, for some reason, which recieve extra reverence....while albino turtles, frogs and snakes are considered "gross", but whatever!). Yet, the ecologist and evolutionary biologist in me can't help but wonder if this is just the result of too few large carnivores on the landscape. One would think this albino deer would stand-out like a sore thumb, and get taken out by a carnivore long before reaching this size.
But there aren't any large carnivores here.
The closest thing being the coyote (Canis latrans), which will definately eat deer if the circumstances are right....but is often just as happy eating rodents and bunnies, or other small game that's easier to take down than a deer. We've gotten rid of the big 'uns....the wolves, bear, and Cougars....who's left to weed out these genetic mutations?
So, perhaps this albino white-tail is just another construct of humanity......
The result of our preferential elimination of things that would otherwise eat them.....
I've never seen any research on this topic, but it would be interesting to know if the frequency of adult albino deer is higher in areas with lower densities of their primary predators.
