Rare Albino Deer in Southern Oregon

The following article appeared in out of state newspaper on February 26, 1904.

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"Rare Albino Deer

An albino deer, with a coat as white as snow and eyes a delicate pink, was killed in the Canyon mountains of southern Oregon recently.  It was one of the very few albino deer ever seen in the mountains of the west.  Old hunters tell of seeing them, usually separate from the main herd, at various times during the early days; but they were too shy to be approached near enough for a shot.  The deer killed in the Canyon mountains was with four other deer at the time it was found, and had not this been true the hunters would not have taken it for a deer.  Its white coat made it far more conspicuous than the remainder of the herd and it is perhaps for this reason that albino deer are shunned by their mates."

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Photo courtesy of Brian Adler.

The Canyon mountains referred to in the article are the "Oregon Canyon Mountains" located in Malheur county.

According to some biologists, there is a one in 20,000 chance that a deer will have the recessive gene that causes albinoism.