Comments on: The Black Thing

By: Ke-Ke

Ke-Ke — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:21:14 +0000

Wow that is so cool, but killing it is sad , a majestic rarety like this black buck should be left in nature. Mutants like these are seen only once in a blue moon and sometimes only one case ever pops up in history, hopelfully we will see another black deer

By: Rebel08

Rebel08 — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 20:15:42 +0000

First of all I live in an area where several people hunt and some years the population is more than enough or in other years too scarce. Anyways deer of unusual color (black or white) if ever seen are killed, because their genes will set the population off balance. It ruins the population. For example, albinos are smaller than a regular white tail deer. This creates problems if there are too many. It must be contained. I agree they are beautiful animals and they should not be shot because of color alone. But think about it, if your family depends on deer to feed them, are you going to want a deer the size of a goat with tougher meat or something that will supply you with some food?

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 15:42:39 +0000

Some of the info on the white tail color is interesting. But some people have mentioned “what good would it do?”. Well, mutations like albinoism and melanism probably don’t take into consideration what good it does for the animal involved. It isn’t some sort of adaptation in deer, but rather a genetic condition. It is not going to say “oh, the deer needs the white tail for a warning, so I better leave the tail white.”, or “this isn’t an advantage for the deer, but I’ll do it anyway.” There must be some physical reason for it. I like the idea that there is no pigment under the tail, so it is white. Is this a fact?

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:27:14 +0000

Raisinsofwrath, Yes, I’d much rather see the population controlled by SOMETHING, but ideally it should be natural predators, which as I said does include hunters. I think what you’re doing is great, and I work with a lot of sportsmen of similar caliber. My wilds are largely coastal, and my sportsmen are fishermen, but I agree, they are some of the more dedicated nature-lovers around…educated too. Most understand that if they want to continue doing what they do, they have to protect habitats, limit their catches, and so on.

By: Bexta

Bexta — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 09:54:05 +0000

They saw something that was a rarity, so they killed it? Makes so much sense to me…

By: BendyWVa

BendyWVa — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 04:32:22 +0000

It is my understanding that an animal that is melanistic simply has more melanin in its skin. Albinism is a total lack of pigment. A melanistic animal doesn’t even have to be black, just much darker. Since the skin underneath the deer’s tail normally has has no pigment, the melanism wouldn’t affect it.

By: One Eyed Cat

One Eyed Cat — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 20:31:56 +0000

A beautiful animal to be sure.

I am not surprised the tail is white. My understanding is White-tails use the tails for a warning to the other members of the herd, — I am also sure to be corrected if that is an old myth. Anyway what benefit would there be for a totally black deer?

I do know the black color in horses only comes when a certain gene is off in BOTH parents. If this buck had some full siblings that survived, there may be others there. If not this boy probably set up the appearance of a few blacks in a few years as the lines he started meet up, at least occasionally. Assuming the genetics follow the same pattern of course.

By: raisinsofwrath

raisinsofwrath — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 19:15:10 +0000

If you have ever seen a group of deer die of starvation I’m sure you would much rather see the population controlled by hunters. If it were not for the sportsmens love of wildlife, deer as well as many other animals wouldn’t stand a chance. While you are sitting in your nice warm house these guys are out planting trees and doing things to protect habitat as well as hanging salt licks and pruning wild fruit trees to keep them producing. I have hunted on and off for many years and have also done my share of conservation for the animals I hunt as well as for the habitat they live in.

I can tell you that whitetails come in many shades of color. They are a beautiful animal and I hope they are around for a long time to come. Of course when a new soccer field is needed, who do you think suffers? How many deer do you think will starve that following winter because that piece of land was taken away?

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:48:24 +0000

So, has anyone figured out why they do this? I can understand why they go albino, but going black (and keeping the white tail) doesn’t make a whole lotta sense to me. Though, I will have to say that the coloring really makes this deer majestic looking.

By: Maohk Kiaayo

Maohk Kiaayo — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:34:14 +0000

I think I’ve seen that picture before back during the summer. I don’t think it was taken this year but I have heard of melanistic animals before. I have seen several true albino deer in my area but never one of these.