Youngstown — Most Mahoning Valley residents have seen white-tailed deer roaming parks and neighborhoods. Deer are so prevalent that some people barely notice them.
Some people even spot white deer, especially in the Mill Creek Park area. Impressive, beautiful and rare animal.
According to John Bates, a Northwood, Wisconsin naturalist and co-author of White Deer: Ghosts of the Forest, the odds of a white deer being born are about 1 in 20,000. Others put the odds he closer to 1 in 30,000, according to the Protect the Rare White Deer group.
White deer are relatively common in Mill Creek Park.
What is a white deer?
Matthew L. Miller, Director of Science Communications at The Nature Conservancy, writes: The ghostly appearances of these animals have also long attracted myths, superstitions and rampant scientific misinformation. ”
Foreman of Ka-Ron Waterproofing in Austintown, Ronnie Lofaro became a part-time hobby four and a half years ago when he began photographing Youngstown white deer at Mill Creek Park. He lives in Boardman, not far from the park, and one day he decided to take his camera with him while walking his dog. Since then, he has continued to photograph white deer.
Lofaro encountered six white deer in the park. All deer are named Button, Angel, Bella, Angelo, Grace and Faith.
Button was hit by a car when he was four and a half. Bella died of a bacterial infection after giving birth. Lofalo said Angel died less than a month old from a coyote or illness.
All the remaining white deer are domesticated, he said. Angelo’s is easy to locate near the hiking and biking trails of Tippecanoe Road across from the golf course.
“I’ve worked in a dark, dusty basement for over 25 years, and after work it’s become a pastime to go out and explore in the sun and fresh air,” Rofalo says. said. “I enjoy being alone, so I spend a lot of time outside walking my dog Kirby, or spending time alone with just my camera and deer.
“It’s an adventure of going out and finding them and befriending them right away – just don’t feed them. It’s pretty tame. That’s how I get good shots,” he said.
“There’s a couple I’ve known since birth, and I’ve watched them grow up into adulthood,” Rofalo said. “Each deer gives off its own vibe. Often they see me approaching and continue their work as if I wasn’t there.”
Why are deer white?
Jamie Emmert, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Wildlife, said: This recessive trait is found in about 1% of all white-tailed deer. ”
She also said that white deer are called “albinos.” Deer are much more likely to exhibit the condition commonly known as “vitiligo.”
Leucistic animals lack pigment in all or part of their bodies. Roucistic deer can be different levels of white. Some contain white spots, some are half brown and half white, and some appear almost all white.
A mixture of brown and white animals is known as a “mouse deer”.
Former Vice President of Cortland and Andover Banks, Robert Cogshall has lived on Old Furnace Road since 2005, where his backyard adjoins Mill Creek Park. He has seen a wide variety of wildlife including all types of deer. He gives him crushed corn or sunflower seeds and gives him salt to help strengthen his bones.
For two years, Cogshall was a naturalist at the Ford Nature Center, offering nature programs and guiding hiking and kayaking trips for visiting groups wanting to learn more about the wildlife in Mill Creek Park. One of his most popular presentations is a PowerPoint presentation called “Nature Outside My Door”.
His house is filled with dozens of framed photos of Baton and Bella, as well as a calendar he created with a different photo of Bella each month.
It all started when a neighbor told him about a white deer he had seen in the park and Coggeshall went looking for it. He found Button and befriended him — named for his visible antler hump — Button learned to trust him and knew who he would pet and feed. I learned.
That’s what made me fall in love with white deer.
He also distinguishes between albino deer and vitiligo or spotted deer. According to Coggeshall, true albino deer have pink eyes and may have birth defects. He saw a real albino deer in the park ten years before him. It disappeared after three or four months, he said.
He said he had never seen a deer in the park.
The most recent addition to Mill Creek Park’s white deer population was one born a few months ago, and two were born last year, Cogshall said, and can be seen near hiking and biking trails. .
Angelo is always seen by hikers and bike riders in Mill Creek Park. He doesn’t hide and is well known to those who frequent the park, Coggeshall said.
what about hunter?
Today, human hunters are deer’s most common large predator, Emmert said. , we do not provide information about where the deer were found in order to keep them safe from harvest,” she said.
Protecting white deer is also a concern of Cogshall. He said that two years ago, his two men in a pickup truck with a rifle turned up at the Mill He was planning to show up at Creek Park and shoot a white deer. A neighbor learned of their intentions and called the police, who removed the men from the park.
Hunting is prohibited on park grounds.
Miller said: This idea seems almost universal among hunting cultures.
“When hunting regulations were enacted in the early 1900s, conservationists believed that rare wildlife needed to be protected. White deer were considered a rare species, so many state game departments We were banning the killing of white deer by hunters,” Miller said. “The regulation remains in effect in at least three states and parts of his two other states.”
The most interesting example of white deer protection is the Seneca Army Depot in New York. Surrounded by a fence, essentially he was created a 10,600-acre deer sanctuary. Herd isolation and protection allowed for high levels of inbreeding and increased the proportion of white deer.
According to Miller, many white deer guardians see rare animals to protect and believe that very rare animals should never be killed by humans.
What kind of deer is a white deer?
Albinos — born without pigment, are all white with pink eyes and a pink nose. Albino animals tend to have poor eyesight and are easy prey when they stand out in pure white.
Leucistic — Pigment missing in all or part of the body. Eyes and nose are normal color. Lacking natural camouflage coloration, they remain easy prey. A recessive trait found in about 1% of all white-tailed deer.
Mottled — A mixture of brown and white spots caused by rare genetic mutations, often resulting in skeletal malformations and internal abnormalities such as hunched backs and bent legs.
Source: Cool Green Science and National Deer Association
