Post by Woody Williams on Dec 11, 2007 22:38:54 GMT -5
Boy's first buck more special because of rare coloring
Experts say the four-point buck may have had a genetic trait known as melanism that caused its fur and tongue to be black.
BY ERIC BARKER - LEWISTON TRIBUNE
Edition Date: 12/11/07
Brendan Pearson of Lewiston was happy just to get a deer during his first season of hunting.
The fact that it was a buck has the 12-year-old still grinning two weeks later.
But the young hunter's first deer is making waves throughout the region.
Its size is modest, just a four point. But its color is turning heads: The whitetail buck is exceptionally dark with a black head, black tongue and dark underbelly. Its legs also are dark and, aside from the white tip, its tail is all black.
When he tells people about the deer they are reluctant to believe him until they see visual proof.
Pearson was hunting with his father, Jeff Van Tassel of Lewiston, and other family members in Unit 8A this fall. On the last day he was able to hunt, he saw the deer wander out of the forest. It was in the afternoon of a soggy day with dark, brooding storm clouds.
He found the deer in his scope and told his grandfather it appeared to be dark. His grandfather told him it was likely just wet.
He shot, approached the downed deer and saw it was black.
Van Tassel and Pearson showed pictures to biologists at the Lewiston office of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. None of them had ever seen a black whitetail. But they say the coloration comes from a genetic trait that is similar to one that produces white and albino animals. The trait is known as melanism and named after the pigment melanin.
Melanistic animals produce excessive amounts of the pigment that causes their fur to be dark or completely black.
Van Tassel said family members had reported seeing a black doe in the area but not a black buck. Although Pearson and his father are proud of the deer, both are a little sheepish about taking such a rare individual. But they are also pragmatic about it.
"It's so rare he hates to shoot something like that," Van Tassel said.
Little is known about melanistic deer. But John Baccus, a biology professor at Texas State University at San Marcos, has studied them for about a decade.
The area where he lives, near Austin, is a hot spot for melanistic deer. Baccus said those who know where to look can reliably find them in the fields and edges of subdivisions around Austin. And of the 300,000 to 400,000 deer taken each year in Texas about five end up being black.
He said the melanistic trait is rare in the rest of the country with occasional reports of black deer coming in but never multiple sightings like those that occur near Austin.
"Most all of the others are just single incidences," he said. "Here in this area we have seen quite a number of them."
Baccus has started to build a genetic data base on melanistic deer and was excited to hear about the one shot by Pearson. Van Tassel is working to send him a sample.
The cape and head are at a taxidermist shop in Moscow and a mount will soon hang in their home.
Experts say the four-point buck may have had a genetic trait known as melanism that caused its fur and tongue to be black.
BY ERIC BARKER - LEWISTON TRIBUNE
Edition Date: 12/11/07
Brendan Pearson of Lewiston was happy just to get a deer during his first season of hunting.
The fact that it was a buck has the 12-year-old still grinning two weeks later.
But the young hunter's first deer is making waves throughout the region.
Its size is modest, just a four point. But its color is turning heads: The whitetail buck is exceptionally dark with a black head, black tongue and dark underbelly. Its legs also are dark and, aside from the white tip, its tail is all black.
When he tells people about the deer they are reluctant to believe him until they see visual proof.
Pearson was hunting with his father, Jeff Van Tassel of Lewiston, and other family members in Unit 8A this fall. On the last day he was able to hunt, he saw the deer wander out of the forest. It was in the afternoon of a soggy day with dark, brooding storm clouds.
He found the deer in his scope and told his grandfather it appeared to be dark. His grandfather told him it was likely just wet.
He shot, approached the downed deer and saw it was black.
Van Tassel and Pearson showed pictures to biologists at the Lewiston office of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. None of them had ever seen a black whitetail. But they say the coloration comes from a genetic trait that is similar to one that produces white and albino animals. The trait is known as melanism and named after the pigment melanin.
Melanistic animals produce excessive amounts of the pigment that causes their fur to be dark or completely black.
Van Tassel said family members had reported seeing a black doe in the area but not a black buck. Although Pearson and his father are proud of the deer, both are a little sheepish about taking such a rare individual. But they are also pragmatic about it.
"It's so rare he hates to shoot something like that," Van Tassel said.
Little is known about melanistic deer. But John Baccus, a biology professor at Texas State University at San Marcos, has studied them for about a decade.
The area where he lives, near Austin, is a hot spot for melanistic deer. Baccus said those who know where to look can reliably find them in the fields and edges of subdivisions around Austin. And of the 300,000 to 400,000 deer taken each year in Texas about five end up being black.
He said the melanistic trait is rare in the rest of the country with occasional reports of black deer coming in but never multiple sightings like those that occur near Austin.
"Most all of the others are just single incidences," he said. "Here in this area we have seen quite a number of them."
Baccus has started to build a genetic data base on melanistic deer and was excited to hear about the one shot by Pearson. Van Tassel is working to send him a sample.
The cape and head are at a taxidermist shop in Moscow and a mount will soon hang in their home.
