I saw the most extraordinary thing today - a completely white deer. It was grazing amongst its herd-mates on the slope of a golf course at the country club where GMA was having an event. It was starkly and solidly white as snow, and it was so stunning I could hardly bear to look away. I'd never even considered that albinism could occur in creatures. When I got home I looked up online to discover that an albino deer is extremely rare - one estimate I read guessed it happened perhaps once in 30-40,000 births. An adult albino, like the one I saw, is even less common, as the albino condition often manifests with other deformaties and hearing or sight loss. With no camoflauge to defend itself against predetors, an albino deer is an easy target. So to see this one alive and presumabley well, just munching away at the grass with its fellow deer, was really, really cool. Of all the days not to have my camera...
Seeing something so rare felt sacred. Like it was somehow a blessing or a sign. I don't want to pretend it means something in a superstitious sort of way; there's nothing of true faith in speculating on omens and portends. But God has this odd and purposeful habit of revealing himself in the strangest of ways, and I'm not going to say what he can and can't count amongst all his many signs and wonders. Maybe a white deer can be one of them. At the very least I'm so humbled and grateful that he shared this very special bit of his creation with me today.
2 comments:
Yes, albinism does occur in animals! There was a fascinating, and tragic, albino gorilla (I think he was in a zoo in Europe) who was named Snowflake, that I read about for a class once. He was wild-born, captured as a baby, so who knows if he would have survived. Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen an albino gator/crocodile something at a zoo or Busch Gardens (or maybe Gatorland?). So it can happen in reptiles too.
But a deer is insane, because how did it survive? It's one thing for a predator to somehow scavenge its way to adulthood, but a deer is blowing my little biologist's mind...
Well, we did consider that there aren't many large predators here in Middle Tennessee - probably the worst it would've had to defend itself against would be coyotes. And I did read it is illegal for hunters to kill them if they are spotted. But it was still so cool!
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