This is another example of melanism.  Melanism is the opposite of albinism.  Where albinism is a condition where the animals has less than normal pigmentation,  melanism is an condition where the animal has more than normal pigmentation or melanin.

Check out this post of a full grown black whitetail buck.

Here are some posts of some beautiful albino animals including twin deer.

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• Monster Crocodile in the Congo
• Giant Grizzly Bear
• Giant Texas Gator
• Dog tangles with a Porcupine
• Human Remains found in a Crocodile (yuck)
• Albino Whitetail Fawn
• Giant Fish
• Giant Spiders of Iraq

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Check out the Albino category on the left for even more wonderful animals that have Albinism — or even a BLACK Whitetail…

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“Jake Sweeney first thought he was looking at a mountain goat while hunting up the North Fork last Friday.

But he looked a closer and then a little closer and realized, there’s no goats in this area.

That’s a bear.

It was a bear all right. An albino black bear. Sweeney, a senior at Columbia Falls high school said he watched the bear for several minutes with hunting companions Jeremy Terillion and Elynden Gravelin to make sure it wasn’t a grizzly.

And then he pulled the trigger.

The bear dropped and was dead.

It took him two days, with the help of Terillion and Gravelin to haul the bear out of the woods. The bruin was just about blind, Sweeney said. He noted that the bear never really saw them.

They were hunting a ridge looking out over a clearing where they had seen some other bears when the albino popped out of a clearing about 114 yards away.

Albino animals out in the woods aren’t entirely uncommon, said Jim Williams, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks Region One wildlife manager. He said the female bear was about 2 years old, though they won’t know exactly until they get data back on the bear’s tooth.

Albinism is simply a genetic mutation, Williams explained. Black bears normally come in a variety of colors.

Thanks, Hunter.

OK, this animal has a condition named melanism.  Melanism is the opposite of albinism.  Where albinism is a condition where the animals has less pigmentation,  melanism is an condition where the animal has excess pigmentation or melanin.

Here are some posts of some beautiful albino animals including twin deer.

Black Whitetail

Thanks, Hunter.

Albinism is hereditary and causes a lack of pigmentation. These albino deer have skin that lacks melanin (pigment) which helps protect the skin from ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun. They can sunburn easily from overexposure to direct sunlight. Lack of melanin in the eye also results in problems with vision.

Shooting and then mounting an albino deer used to be quite the trophy for hunters due to their rarity. Now, though, simply snapping a picture suffices.

How about that Browning logo feeder? I have no idea why the bottom photo was flipped.

Update 12/28/08

Sadly, here’s a story of someone that saw one and decided to shoot it.

See comments below for actual location of these beautiful animals.

Update 1/15/09

The local news station did a video news story concerning the pair of albino deer. Seems they are 2 years old and are named Snow Flake and Snow Ball. One female and one male.  This is my favorite story on this blog.  Simply beautiful.