I went looking for some more fawns to photograph yesterday. I found these two. One has a dark saddle. It is most noticeable when viewed from behind.
I don’t know if this is very unusual or not, but it looks unusual to me.
Columbia Blacktail Fawn with Unusual Coat
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Maybe it has a little of the axis deer in it? Or are they all ‘eliminated’ (murdered) now?
I don’t know Kimberly.
Oh wow, Jim – this is great! Actually, very pretty, though I wonder if will serve him well – as in camoflauge… Or perhaps he’ll grow out of it…? Any thoughts?
I don’t know Gregory. My guess is that it will be just a darker deer than average. There are already some deer at Point Reyes that are quite light in color.
Axis deer and blacktails arent even in the same genus, much less species, so thank goodness that the rare and special Columbian blacktail deer cant possibly interbreed with introduced common livestock such as the axis deer…..
Color variation in a population is a nice indicator of genetic health, consider that the blacktail deer is one of the few large mammals whose undisturbed lineage has survived both the ice age and recent invasions of humans that led to the extirpation or genetic bottle-necking of so many other highly evolved native mammals (tule elk, sea otter, grizzly bear, bison, etc, etc)….
Thanks for your comment Tim.
It’s quite interesting to see the variation in its coat, and it is rather attractive!
I saw them again today Pat. The lighter-coated one also has a stripe down its neck and back. I hadn’t noticed it before because the darker one’s markings stood out so much.