What is the piebald deer, the rare animal recently spotted in Western Pennsylvania?
MURRYSVILLE, Pa. (KDKA) -- PixCams has been livestreaming and recording Pennsylvania wildlife in action for almost 20 years, and for the first time, one of its trail cams captured a rare sighting of a deer with an odd genetic mutation.
PixCams posted a video on Facebook showing a buck that was both brown and white.
"We see a lot of deer. We just have never seen a piebald deer here," said Bill Powers, president of PixCams Inc.
Powers was thrilled when the piebald deer popped up on a cellular trail camera on his property in Murrysville last week.
"I know other people have seen them throughout the state. They're just not that common. But it's just a very kind of wild oddity to see this, especially when you see a buck. It just makes a little bit more special when you see something like tHat," Powers said.
"That's an opportunity to seize and to really appreciate," said Travis Lau, communications director for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Piebald deer are few and far between in Pennsylvania.
"Probably only 1%, less than 1% of all deer are piebald or albino, have large splashes of white on their coats. But at the same time, they're common enough where a lot of people do see them," Lau said.
The piebald condition is genetic. This rare white-tailed deer can have other abnormalities like short legs and curved spines. People often mistake them for albino deer.
In some states, it is illegal to hunt albino or piebald deer. But they're not protected in Pennsylvania.
"From a management perspective, I don't think that there's any reason to discourage the harvest of piebald deer. I think that comes down to a matter of preference for a hunter who has an opportunity to take one," Lau said.
"It's no different than with any other deer in terms of the need to manage the population in balance with its habitat. In that way, piebald deer are no different than white-tailed deer overall," he added.
Some hunters are fond of piebalds and don't want to harvest them. Others see them as a trophy of a lifetime.
"We do have some people that hunt on our property and they have put this on the do not harvest list. So, I hope that it can make it," Powers said.
Powers believes piebald deer shouldn't be hunted even though they stand out more than other animals.
"It's obviously open to predation more so than a lot of species are. And, of course, the hunters kind of view that as a trophy. But I just hope that somebody would respect it and leave it for other people to watch," said Powers.