The prized Wyoming Range mule deer herd has been through hell the past few years, but is bouncing back with a new crop of fawns, including one that is extremely rare and strange-looking.
Jeff Orvin of Kemmerer is a fan of the Wyoming Range herd and first noticed the fawn last week on the herd’s winter range near La Barge. It has an unusually light-colored coat and striking blue eyes.
He thinks the fawn, which was born this spring, likely has a genetic mutation called leucism.
“I think it (the fawn) is leucistic, other people have seen pictures and have different opinions,” he said.
Leucism causes a lack of pigmentation in a deer’s skin and coat, and it’s more common in whitetail deer than in mule deer, he said.
The condition doesn’t seem to have affected the fawn’s health, Orvin told Cowboy State Daily.
“It appears to be healthy. It’s fat and looks good,” he said.
Not The Same As Albino
Leucistic deer are sometimes mistaken for albino, but they aren’t the same thing, according to World Deer, a deer biology website.
Both genetic mutations can make deer and some other species white. However, leucistic deer can come in other colors, according to World Deer. And the fawn near La Barge is lighter tan in color, not white.
“Both leucism and albinism are genetic mutations,” World Deer reports. “Unlike leucism, which can occur partially, animals cannot be partially albino. An animal is either albino or not.”
Herd Was Devastated
The Wyoming Range mule deer herd has legendary status both for its sheer number of deer and genetics that produced monster bucks.
Three of Wyoming’s biggest bucks ever — Goliath, Popeye and Morty — came from that herd in the 1980s and early 1990s, and are still talked about today.
The herd’s numbers started to decline in recent years, but it still included an estimated 30,000 deer going into winter 2022-2023.
That winter hit with brutal force, freezing and starving thousands of deer, elk and antelope across Wyoming and northern Colorado.
The Wyomng Range herd got the worst of it. Up to 80% of the deer died, including nearly all of that year’s fawns.
Baby Boom
The herd started to bounce back with a bumper crop of fawns the following spring, and that trend is continuing, Orvin said.
“I drive up to check on the winter range a lot, taking pictures and mostly just looking for what kind of bucks made it through,” he said.
But he’s also noticed lots of fawns, including numerous sets of twins.
“According to what (Wyoming) Game and Fish has reported, they’ve counted about 82 fawns per 100 does this year. That’s like, some kind of record,” he said.
As to whether the mutant fawn has any siblings, he’s not sure.
“The first time I saw it, I thought I saw that it had a (normal-looking) sibling with it,” he said. “The next time I saw it, it was with a group of about 15 deer, so I couldn’t tell which fawns were siblings.”
Leucistic deer aren’t known to have high survival rates in the wild. But, given that the fawn looks fat and healthy going into winter, Orvin said he has hopes that it will grow into a unique adult and continue to stand out from the herd.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
