Melanistic spike, central tx

[brit]

Hello all,

I snapped a couple crappy pictures of what I believe to be a melanistic deer I saw this morning. He walked right by me and he looked to be just about solid black. Especially his face and ears. Very odd. What say you fellas?

http://turboninjas.com/gallery/d/52912-1/mela1.jpg

[ccoker]

cool
I saw a melanistic buck on a mountain bike ride about 2 years ago in west Austin, very cool

In all my years of hunting in Texas I have never seen one

[brit]

Saw him again this morning. We had a nice little stare down at 15 yards, that lasted about 10 minutes.

http://turboninjas.com/gallery/d/52918-1/mela3.jpg

http://turboninjas.com/gallery/d/52921-1/mela4.jpg

[ccoker]

cool
very rare occurance

[ucrt]

.

I have a friend that shot one several years ago in Texas. It was a big deal in the area and made the local paper. He has the hide hanging above his PC in his "man-cave". Vey unusual color.

.

[brit]

Im gonna keep my fingers crossed that he doesn't get harvested by another hunter. I'd love to see him next year.

[yellowfin]

If you follow it, you'll come out through a wardrobe and into C.S. Lewis' house. :D

[MRBTX]

We have some of these deer that wander through from time to time, I live just north of the OP. The color makes them look like they are drenched with sweat when standing by the other deer. Makes you do a double-take.

[Artos]

Check out this thread:

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228793

'Could' be a chance of darker sika or fallow...just make sure and save your tag if it's an exotic.:)

[brit]

Artos, thanks for the info.

Upon observation up close, I could tell he was a whitetail, he had the white coloring on the tail in all the same places, same bone structure in the head, same ear size.

[ucrt]

.

FWIW
This is a LINK (http://www.northamericanwhitetail.com/2010/09/22/weirdwhitetails_ww_0904calf/) to the story and picture of the almost black melanistic deer my buddy shot a years ago that I mentioned above.

Very unusual coloring.

.

[ArRazorback]

Interesting timing on this thread. Two weeks ago my wife called to tell me that a deer had run into her car. (Not in front of, but into the rear quarter panel). She swore up and down that she saw it run off, and that it was a black deer. I told her she must have been confused and that I'd never seen or heard of one. Having a black squirrel on the wall and seeing pics of some melanistic big cats, it would be hard for me to rule it out though. Damned if two friends weren't a few cars behind, but not realizing it was she, and saw the whole thing. What did they describe? A black deer running into the side of a white car.

[brit]

UCRT, that deer is DARK. Nice rack too.

Razorback, what part of AR are you in?

[ArRazorback]

Little Rock.

[hyper45]

interesting cool