Extremely rare 'albino' deer spotted by family driving home on back roads
A family had a rare wildlife encounter while driving home from a birthday dinner.
Kurt Massimilla was headed home with his family after celebrating his son’s 13th birthday when the group experienced an unusual sighting while driving along back roads in Iowa, according to reports.
"We were driving home just at dusk on this back road and all of a sudden, my wife was like, ‘An albino deer!’" Massimilla told news agency SWNS.
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"Just the tone in her voice — she was like a giddy teenager."
It is unclear exactly what the animal was — and whether it was actually an albino deer or a piebald deer.
Massimilla said the incident was an extreme rarity.
Seeing two of these animals together may have been a 1 in 400 million chance, he told SWNS.
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"I actually saw it, and I thought it was like a white llama or something like that," added Massimilla.
"So I put on the brakes and backed up, and yeah, there were two of them out in the field just hanging out," he added.
Deer with "varying amounts of white fur are properly known as ‘piebald deer’ and not true albinos, as true albinos have pink eyes and [are] totally white hair," according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
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Piebald deer are uncommon, occurring in less than 1% of the population, according to NJDEP.
Piebald deer are also known as leucistic deer.
Leucism is the partial loss of all types of pigmentation and causes white coloration, white patches, spots or splotches on the skin or fur, according to the National Park Service. "Leucism is also discernible from albinism because leucism does not affect the pigment cells in the eyes," the service also noted.
Massimilla and his family recently moved from Arizona to Iowa.
"We’re big wildlife enthusiasts, so it was just kind of neat to see because we love seeing animals that you typically don’t see on the beaten trail," he said, as SWNS reported.