White Deer Buck in New Forest

[Treehawk]

Hi,
I am not sure if this has been posted before (sorry if it has) but there is a white deer at Boulderwood in the New Forest (Hampshire) and since they feed deer it seems to come every day. I am going to try and see it today and I thought others might be intrested.

[Stevelphoto]

Yeah, I've seen a white one there before and a very dark one as well I think. I remember driving through the forest once and seeing a very large, completely white stag with big, pale antlers

[Deer Stalker]

There are a few white bucks knocking around in the New Forest. There used to be three at Bolderwood. The big one got hit by a falling branch in a storm a few years ago & another got hit by a car the other year, leaving the younger one.

[Beekeeper]

A while ago, a herd of around 20 deer were stood in a small winter pond in the New Forest, right in the middle of the bunch was a white buck, if only i had taken the camera, it would have been a stunning shot.

There used to always be a few albino's around but I haven't seen one for sometime now, guess they were maybe culled or just died naturally.

BK

[Treehawk]

He is still there and at the back there also seemed to be a white or very pale female but I never got a good view of it.

Heres the male:


I do not imagine white Fallow Deer are rare because the adults can be quite variable in colouring.

[Keith Talbot]

Hi Treehawk,

If you do a search in the mammal Gallery for ' White Buck New Forest ' you'll find some pictures of them some of us have taken,here's one i took last year,



I must get up there again,ive not been for a while.

[Deer Stalker]

Originally Posted by Beekeeper

There used to always be a few albino's around but I haven't seen one for sometime now, guess they were maybe culled or just died naturally.

BK

The white Fallow are just a colour variation, not albino. There are still a few about, especially does.

[britnik]

Are white deer killed in proportion during the cull?
If not would they not become more common?

[Beekeeper]

Originally Posted by Deer Stalker

The white Fallow are just a colour variation, not albino. There are still a few about, especially does.

Thanks Deer Stalker, i never realised that.

BK

[Deer Stalker]

Originally Posted by britnik

Are white deer killed in proportion during the cull?
If not would they not become more common?

Hi Britnik

The white variety don't naturally occur as often as the common, menil (light coloured), & menalistic (dark) varieties, & it is down to the individual Forestry Commission Keepers discretion to decide which gets culled.