BLANE KLEMEK OUTDOORS: Spotting piebald wildlife is a rare, interesting occurrence

Piebald. The word itself is strange, but the word’s origin, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary, is derived, “. . . from pica, which is Latin for "magpie."

The other part of piebald comes from the word bald, which can mean "marked with white" it can also be found in skewbald, an adjective used to describe animals marked with patches of white and any other color but black.

I have been fortunate enough to observe piebald animals in the wild. The first piebald deer I ever saw was in northwest Minnesota, east of Warren, while I was bowhunting for deer. A lone doe was feeding on a hayfield that I was looking at through binoculars.

When I first observed her, she had her head down, grazing. I saw a white splotch of something on her forehead, but I believed it to be an artifact of the vegetation she was grazing in perhaps the white of a milkweed pod or something similar.

However, when she lifted her head, I could clearly see, even without the aid of binoculars, that the white spot was centered on her forehead. As I studied the deer with the binoculars it became evident that I was looking at a piebald deer.

The star on her head reminded me of the blaze on the forehead of a horse or the “star” on the head of a Holstein cow.

Another way of thinking about piebald is to think of different colors — spotted or patched or blotched — and most especially with black and white.

A pinto horse is a living and breathing example of what the noun version of piebald is. That said, while the gene or genes responsible for the piebald phenotype is a dominant genetic trait in the pinto breed of horse, it is a recessive gene in the white-tailed deer. Hence, the occurrence of piebald deer in free-ranging, wild deer is very low, probably much less than one percent, if even that.

What a piebald deer is not, however, an albino. True albinism, in any animal — be they fish, bird or human — is the total lack of pigmentation, which results in white hair and pink skin and eyes.

A piebald deer is simply a deer with white hair, often occurring in spots or blotches throughout the animal’s body. Sometimes a piebald deer can be over 90% white with very little brown. Such a deer, though indeed appearing every bit an albino, is not “part albino” it’s just a variation of piebald.

It is thought that the occurrence of piebald deer in a population increases when populations become too high.

For example, at the United States Geologic Services’ Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, numerous piebald deer have been observed inside the refuge. A student who studied the refuge’s deer herd in 1998 documented twin piebald fawns born to a normal-colored doe.

Other observations included piebald siblings with normal colored siblings, in addition to normal colored fawns born to piebald does. What’s more, piebald deer, no matter the amount of white in their pelage, were not ostracized by other, normal-colored deer.

Piebald deer behave as any white-tailed deer would behave — piebald or not — under normal circumstances.

My second observation of a piebald deer occurred about nine years ago near my home while on a countryside drive. After spotting a few deer near the road, I slowed to a stop to look at them.

Peering through the side window of the passenger door of my truck, I was surprised to see white above the white throat patch on one of the deer, a buck. I then noticed that the buck had a completely white face. The animal reminded me of a white-faced Hereford with antlers instead of horns.

The appearance of a piebald deer is one of those rare occurrences in nature that is interesting to see. A genetic defect is the reason why it occurs, not disease or parasites or albinism.

It is merely a rare variation in pelage or plumage coloration occasionally exhibited in white-tailed deer, birds, and other animals (over the years I have observed piebald robins, crows, and red-winged blackbirds, too).

Indeed, observing such abnormalities is always a possibility as we get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

Blane Klemek is a Minnesota DNR wildlife manager. He can be reached at bklemek@yahoo.com.