Black Fawn

[yaknar]

I received this in an email yesterday. It may have been going around for awhile, but I had never seen it. It does not looked like it has been photoshopped, but who's knows. The email said:

A BLACK FAWN

Pictures taken near Beamsville Ontario , Canada

Black deer are more rare than albinos.

[Trout Commander]

Almost looks like it might have a twin in a different flavor? Pretty neat regardless.

[stlfisher]

That is weird. Never knew that could happen.

[Al Agnew]

Melanistic (black) deer aren't unheard of. There's a photo of one in Leonard Le Rue's old book about whitetails. And the caption is right that they are much more rare than albinos. I'm not surprised that it is with a normal fawn. It's a similar type of mutation as albinism, and I've seen an albino fawn with it's normal twin. (Saw them on lower Current River, while floating down a side channel off the main river. I saw the normal fawn raise its head in low leafy brush, then the albino head popped up a few feet away. One of the coolest things I've seen in the wild.)

The most famous examples of melanism are black panthers (both jaguars and leopards can be black) and they are fairly common. Gray squirrels can be black. I've never seen a black fox squirrel, but I've killed fox squirrels that were black everywhere they are normally tan; black bellies, muzzles, and feet.

[Stoneroller]

melanism is odd that way. It doesn't always make the animals hair all black, but their skin typically will be. hence what you observed, Al. Even rarer for there to be a twin birth with one normal fawn and one melanistic. That means two seperate eggs instead of a division of the a single zygote.

[Kayser]

Most twin fawns are fraternal and not identical, making the mutation a unique event to the individual in the development process. Older does are more likely to produce twins, as well- has something to do with maturity and development to release 2 eggs instead of 1.

We used to have a big 10pt albino back home (until some a-hole shot the thing), and it was one of the coolest deer I've ever seen- wish they were more common.

Rob