Albino Deer Visits the Cows' Salt Lick

We have a lot of whitetail deer in our area. I generally consider them a nuisance. They like to run into the electric fence, especially during hunting season. They can be counted upon to destroy any fruit trees or berry bushes that aren't fenced from them or sprayed with a deer repellant. They carry Lyme disease, which can have some very nasty consequences, and now with chronic wasting disease verified in Pennsylvania, one must consider whether or not they are willing to eat venison harvested from our area. Of course the game commission and some other government agency or study says that there is no proof of CWD transmission to humans. Somehow though I am a bit hesitant to become their conclusive evidence of transmission.

Well anyway, tonight my family and I got to see something that made us enjoy the deer again, kind of like when I was young, and Pennsylvania wasn't overrun with deer, and it was neat to see a deer. We saw a young albino buck in several different locations on the farm. He had jumped the fence behind the barn and was licking the selenium salt lick that I put out for our cow who is about to have her first calf. After a while he jumped the fence and left for the woods, but a bit later my two of my sons and I saw him out in another field and we took some long distance snapshots with our camera that needs to be upgraded this Christmas.

Here are a few of the shots taken by my wife and two of my sons. Notice how the chickens are playing it safe with this stranger. If our Scottish Highland bull was in the same spot they would be practically underneath him.