WE HAVE photographer Richard Buquoi to thank for these beautiful images, which were shot near Austin, Texas in May 2010. Mr. Buquoi confirms that the black fawn depicted in them is real.
"That area of central Texas seems to have a concentration of black 'white-tailed' deer, although it is still extremely rare to find them," he wrote in answer to my email query. "This is a wild deer, but resides in a greenbelt near a neighborhood. The two fawns in the photos are twins, but only the one is black."
The technical term for all-black (or mostly-black) deer is "melanistic." Of the three generally recognized pigment anomalies in whitetail deer (including albinism and piebald markings), experts say melanism is the rarest.
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See also:
Albino Fawn Pictures
Emailed images show a completely white albino fawn photographed near Stanley, North Dakota, the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas, or West Liberty, Kentucky — depending on which version of the story you choose to believe.'Calico Buck' Pictures
Emailed photos purport to show a piebald or "calico" deer shot by a hunter somewhere in Wisconsin (or Michigan, Arkansas, West Virginia, or Georgia, depending on version).
Sources and further reading:
R.M. Buquoi Photographics
Home page and galleryMelanism
About.com: Animals/WildlifeNorth American Whitetail: Weird Whitetails
North American Whitetail website2007's Top Five Melanistic Deer Hot Spots in America
Cryptomundo, 28 November 2007Melanism in White-Tailed Deer in Central Texas
Southwestern Naturalist, June 1999
Last updated 08/27/10
