A rare albino fallow deer was spotted in Opole Voivodeship in southern Poland. A woman who came across this incredible animal managed to capture it on video, which she later sent over to us at our Kontakt 24 platform.
On Friday (July 29), a woman named Roma was travelling in a car with her husband. When they were passing through the village of Szczedrzyk, Opolskie Voivodeship, they saw a white fallow deer (Dama dama).
"For us it was amazing, like we had seen some sort of creature from outer space. It's incredible to spot a regural brown specimen, but a white one... I'm lost for words, I'm getting goosebumps," Roma said.
She added that once she had seen the deer, she felt they simply had to turn back.
"We were riding in the car and I spotted it on the driver's side. I asked my husband to stop. We turned back and drove very slowly. It came out and waited for us, stood for a while and went back into the woods," Roma added.
Albino deer
The incredible creature captured on video by Roma was an albino fallow deer. Albinism is caused by a rare genetic malfunction that makes the animal, in this case a fallow deer, appear white when it should be another color.
Albino deer are very rare, especially in the wild. As such, they have specific hunting laws surrounding them that should be adhered to.
Poland's State Forests said in December, 2020, that albinism in mammals is recorded once in 100,000 births. In the case of the Cervidae family animals living in Poland, white coat colour is seen predominantly in fallow deer.
State Forests experts distinguish between three types of albinism: pure - when there's a complete lack of pigmentation in the cells and irises; partial - when the lack of melanins is seen only in some parts of the body; and leucistic - characterised by partial loss of pigmentation in an animal, but not the eyes.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Kontakt 24
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: Kontakt 24