Blue-eyed deer

[lisa...@peak.org]

On my ride home from work yesterday, I saw a doe and her two fawns hanging out near the Corvallis ODOT building on Philomath Blvd.  This deer family had some interesting variation in their skin, eye and hair pigmentation.  The doe had light blue eyes.  In the attached photos, you can see that her horizontal pupil is dilated, but there is still some iris showing.  All of the areas that are black or somewhat darkened on a normal deer were replaced with tan or light chocolate brown...her nose, chin stripe, the top of her tail and the edges of her ears were all much lighter than usual.

 

Both of her fawns were still spotted, but they looked very different from one another.  One had just a bit more dark pigmentation than the mother, especially on the top of the tail and edges of the ears, but had inherited her ice-blue eyes.  The other one looked just about like a normal deer, with dark brown eyes and some black areas on the nose and chin.

 

We have seen a very light blonde doe in the nearby Brooklane Dr. area before, and I don't suppose that it's too uncommon for deer to have pigmentation abnormalities.  All deer look beautiful to me, but I especially liked the way each deer in this family looked unique. 

 

Lisa Millbank

www.neighborhood-naturalist.com