Rare piebald deer spotted near McMinnville

Neighbors near McMinnville captured photos of a rare piebald blacktail deer in February.

Kathleen Verigin caught the piebald deer on camera.

“It’s not unusual to see lots of deer” in the area, Verigin said when she shared the photos with The Oregonian. “This year, however, we were startled by a Piebald deer.”

Piebald deer have some amount of white fur, along with the usual brown or tan, and can often have a mottled appearance.

A rare piebald deer with a mottled coat — A rare piebald deer was photographed with a herd of deer near McMinnville, Oregon, in February 2024.Courtesy of Kathleen Verigin

Michelle Dennehy, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, confirmed with a state biologist that the photo did, in fact, show a rare piebald blacktail.

Dennehy said via email that piebald deer represent “under 1%” of the blacktail population and are “probably quite a bit rarer than that.”

The piebald deer’s unique coloring is “due to genetic mutation,” according to ODFW. Those same genetic mutations can often lead to other health or development problems, and many piebald deer do not reach adulthood.

The deer sighted near McMinnville, however, appeared to be healthy and “accepted by her herd,” according to Verigin.

ODFW’s Dennehy said that the agency gets reports of piebald blacktail deer every year but that “not many people have seen one in the wild.”