Have you ever been out in the hunting woods or just driving down the road and saw something that just didn't look right, like a black coyote, black or white deer. The first thing that comes to your mind is WHAT?, and then you make a double take to verify what you are really looking at. Several seasons ago I had run ins with a couple of black deer, one black coyote, and a dark chocolate doe all within a few years. My friend even saw a black spike. right about that time I saw a black coyote in a taxidermy shop too. Must of been something in the water? They say its just a skin pigmentation thang. This hunting season I saw my first albino deer in the wild off the side of the road. It was in east Texas and it was very shocking to see it. I was driving down a back road in the dark with a loaded trailer behind me. I saw something in the dim moonlight running across a cow pasture. I was wondering why I could see it so good, it was because it was white. It sailed over a gate and ran across the road in front of me. I figured with the rate of speed that it was traveling that it was long gone, so I didn't slow down. Low and behold he had stopped on the other side of the road and was standing broad side about ten yards from the road on a pipeline. My head lights bouncing off the brush made him look like a glowing Jesus. I could tale he had a big rack too, but that was about it. I kept on driving all the way home because I knew he would haul tail if I made an attempt at a second look. I got my wife for a witness and drove back in my suv. Guess what no deer. He lives in a nasty clear cut blocked off by an old community. He was doing the night run. Ever seen one? My buddy got a piebald on cam this year too in east tx. All my friends think I'm trippin and one said it was a deer ghost haunting me because Ive killed too many deer.

I've seen two menalistic deer and two piebalds. Never seen an albino deer.

A lot of menalistic deer sightings are chocolate fallow so if your outside of a few counties between Austin and San Antonio be suspect. Mine were seen in comal and Kendall counties

I know that black to chocolate colored whitetail are not uncommon from the Hamilton Pool area out to the near where the Pedernales runs into Lake Travis. I wasn't introduced to deer hunting until I was 19 years old. I had hunted with a BB gun and later a .22 on rabbits and snakes as a kid.
On my first hunt where I was left alone sitting in a small oak tree out next to the Pedernales near lake Travis, dawn arrived and shortly afterward when I could see good I saw my first deer. It was chocolate colored, a forkhorn. This was back before deer management, letting little bucks walk, was even heard of. It was "if it's brown it's down" and filling tags was the game. An 8 pt buck in the hill country was like Christmas morning as a kid.
When I saw the chocolate deer, I didn't know what it was. It took five or ten minutes to determine it was indeed a whitetail. It was a twilight zone moment for me. I shot it,
was standing straight on and I missed a bit and hit the right shoulder. The little buck ran directly toward me and stopped right under my tree! I shot it in the neck and that was that. Several years later we got a lease off Hamilton Pool Rd. There was a 6 pt buck in the area which was black as the ace of spades. We had agreed not to kill it. We had lunch one day at a BBQ place minutes from our lease and overheard another group of hunters talking about this particular deer. They were going to take it. We changed that deers status to "take it if you see it" after that. A couple of weeks later, I took that deer. A few weeks ago my wife pulled out the old photo albums and low and behold, we have pictures of both of those deer. I'll scan and post them one day.
I'm old now and I'm not the same hunter I once was. Today, I would photograph those deer
regardless of whether or not I knew others would kill them. Not that there's anything wrong with taking them. I'm just not mad at the deer anymore.

Cheers

I've seen melanistic deer around Canyon lake, specifically around the town of Fischer off hwy 32

Cool stories, Ive seen all the black deer and the coyote in Harrison co. and the albino deer in another co. near that.

Years ago, Alazan Bayou WMA . Archery hunt. Got down out of my bow stand, strrach after morning hunt. Walked the high line, looking for trails. They had brush-hogged a trail threw the tall grass going west. Walked it ta see were it headed. On way back ta stand seen something white standing 20 yrds in tall grass. Hog.... Moved back & forth ta find lane ta squease off arrow. Then it lifted head turned an eased away. It was white tail deer, could been piebald, all i seen was white. Reason thought it was a hog. This was 98 or so. Tis not always bout the kill, rather the experiance.

We get a few black coyotes here in VA. I saw one this year at my taxidermist. Given the color I would have thought it was a domestic dog...but upon close examination you can tell it's a coyote. We do get a ton of piebald deer (I've seen several) as well as albinos but I have never seen a melanistic deer here in VA

Regarding the coyotes, supposedly (and this from an article in VA Fish and Game), the coyotes in the Southeastern USA have crossed with wolves and ONLY gray wolves have a black color phase....they also did some DNA studies to verify the coyotes in VA are a coyote wolf cross.

I found the article very interesting since typically gray wolves kill coyotes on sight.....but what do I know.

The doe fawn in both of these pics was not an albino but was very light colored. Notice her eyes compared to her twin sister. I found her dead when she was a 2 yr old in a food plot. My guess is she was trying to fawn and had complications. Her twin then had a fawn a year or two later that was the exact same color as this one was. The second pic is the doe and the twins.


The raccoon was a different color phase from. I have seen 3 or 4 like this over the years.

I have also seen a white colored road runner on a ranch I hunted in the 80's.

awesome photos , really neat .

I've posted this picture before, this melanistic whitetail lived near Dripping Springs. I watched him grow for 5 years and have pictures of each year before he disappeared. This was the last picture of him. I've seen several others, mainly doe.

that is a beautiful buck. I like his look better than a standard whitetail. too bad we can't breed them to be meanalistic

That last photo of the black whitetail is awesome! Sounds stupid but not sure I could shoot that one

Beautiful dark buck. Full grown, very majestic.

Cheers

Hey, funny story My mom married a man that had 80 acres in Dripping Springs when I was a kid. We lived on the 80 acres and he wouldn't let me hunt or fish on it, so when he was gone I had to sneak around on the place we lived on to hunt and fish. What an a hole. They didn't last long thankfully. Lots of deer there. I used to count them on the way to school while riding the bus. The saddest part about this story is that we moved from a 53 acre farm that was surrounded by thousands of farmland acres that I could hunt with permission. Now that Will ruin a boy. Thank you baby Jesus for that place. It let me know what freedom feels like. We lost that for the dick and Dripping Springs. Im trying to down load your pic thanks guys. some beauties.

that is one beautiful deer.

We had melanistic colored deer on a lease I had west of New Brunsville in 1996 and also one white albino buck on a lease I had in Val Verde county in 1976. The albino buck was not young but had very spindally antlers that we were told was a common trait on albinos. We never bothered them in either place. They were fun to watch because they were different.

you have to be a real piece of work not to let a kid fish on your place

Yes he was a real piece of crap. That black buck that guy posted is pretty. I got to say the hunter in me would make me want to turn that one into my main target of the season. It looks like he was a mature animal and they always will have someone hunting them no matter the color, and to me he looks ready. It would look pretty on somebody's wall too. Deer live short lives. Hey the truth can be painful.

My brother killed a black coyote near Natchez,MS. He has him mounted.

When I was a kid, my grandpa used to take me squirrel hunting near Ben Wheeler, TX. He was a caretaker on a property owned by the Buchannon family with an old mansion and orchards, ponds, and fields. We saw an albino squirrel in the old orchard several times. He would never let me shoot it, saying it was a special thing for watching, not killing.

Ive seen a couple of albino squirrels, one of them was at the state capitol and the other was way down in the sabine river bottoms. I was so far back in the bottoms that the squirrel didn't pay me no mind. Don't think he new what a human was or was capable of. I let him be. I also have seen some black deer in a hunting scenario, but they were young and lacked the head gear I was looking for.