when or if to shoot albino deer

SHIPPERS2

Active Member
so out today got wet very wet but kept going and as me and my mate creep in the woods we see about 5 fallow doe's looking straight at us two of witch were albino, we didn't have time to scope them before they were running away but was thinking if they should be shot or not some might say bad luck if u do some might say just another deer. what do people think
 
so out today got wet very wet but kept going and as me and my mate creep in the woods we see about 5 fallow doe's looking straight at us two of witch were albino, we didn't have time to scope them before they were running away but was thinking if they should be shot or not some might say bad luck if u do some might say just another deer. what do people think

Bad luck.....for them. It makes them much easier to spot.
 
Know people who have them and they say not to shoot them as it makes spotting the herd easier,sounds practical and sensible to me...
 
If its fallow, you sure they are not just white as opposed to true albino? i.e. red eyes?
 
If they are fallow its unlikely they are true albino. I have white fallow on one of my main leases, and they get shot the same as any other fallow.
 
We have a herd of menial (black) fallow in our area and they are V hard to spot, so if I have a choice I will always leave a common fallow, if among them to make spotting easier, though if there is not a choice, down it goes!
 
was told that they used to shoot them on sight in the New forest and area as they marked the herds out more easily for the poachers tho back in the 40's to 60's it was more like warfare as my grandfather told it
 
Yep got that wrong, I meant Melanistic, Menil are paler colouration with white spots year-round, hope that clears that one up!
 
I have found the temperament of white fallow different to the others within their own mob. They are usually mad/crazy, & the ones I pay most attention to when working fallow for folks who like to keep these mutations. Menil & black fallow are the same temperament as common IMO & don't require the extra attention.

Pre domestication colour mutations in fallow would have been very rare. I don't like seeing "50 shades of deer" & cull my own herds on colour before anything else. A white, menial or black fawn will be shot before its weened if an opportunity arises. My D dama are of Hungarian ancestry & I maintain them as a dark/red common colour, the D mesopotamica are maintained as the natural orange/red common colour. Although I have never had a colour variation from a "domestic pure" Persian, Hungarians will still throw the occasional mutation after several generations.

Sharkey
 
In my area we rarely saw a white fallow before the mid seventies through people being superstitious about shooting the the "white" deer we now have a high proportion of them, I am told this is due to a small gene pool and originating from park deer.
 
I would take the White ones over, menial or common as it's easier for poachers to spot on a drive by,
That is why any day of the week i would shoot one, we have a lot of melanistic in Devon, the poacher tends to leave the white ones as they give away the position of the black ones!
Cheers
Richard
 
I used to see quite a few up on the South Downs above Steyning a while back, with several in the same herd. I had not heard about the myths on not hunting them
 
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