Deer spotted with ‘rare batch of triplets’ — and one was albino, Montana officials say
A Montana woman snapped a picture of a rare albino fawn earlier this month — and her wildlife encounter grew even more remarkable just after she captured the picture, state officials said.
“Only two fawns are visible in the picture, but in the span of a few minutes, the doe had a third fawn, making for a rare batch of triplets,” Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials based in Miles City wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. “Nature is pretty wild!”
Officials said the deer photo was taken and shared by Tracy Baker of Miles City.
Baker noticed the doe and her newborns on June 12 as she was traveling between Baker and Miles City in southeast portion of the state, MTN News reports.
“Please remember to give does and fawns space this time of year, as does often stash a fawn while they feed and rarely abandon their young,” wildlife officials said. “The animals’ best chance of surviving and thriving is in nature, with humans at a safe distance!”
The Facebook post has been shared more than 300 times less than 24 hours after Montana officials posted it on Wednesday.
It’s not that uncommon for deer to be piebald, which means the animals have some splotches of white coloring on their hides, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Roughly one in every 1,000 deer is piebald, the commission said.
But albino deer — which are fully white and have pink noses, hooves and eyes — are much rarer: Only one in 30,000 deer is born albino, the commission said.
As for triplets, a doe giving birth to three fawns “can be a sign of a very healthy deer population,” according to the Quality Deer Management Association.
But triplets are more common in some places than in others, experts say.
Lou Cornicelli, a wildlife research program manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said in 2012 that “triplets are more common in the southern Midwest because deer do not have to contend with severe winters and can maintain a high nutritional plane, thus their reproductive rates are typically higher than what we see in northern Minnesota,” according to KKCB, a Duluth radio station.
This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Deer spotted with ‘rare batch of triplets’ — and one was albino, Montana officials say."
