The Weird Black Whitetails of Texas

Reader Charlie Hennigan sent in these images of a black whitetail he encountered near Luling, TX. Most accounts of these deer come from social media and taxidermists. At first glance (on my iPhone) I thought it was a chocolate-phase fallow deer. Texas has many free-ranging exotics and fallow deer are one of the most prolific. But after close examination I have determined this is a black (melanistic) whitetail.

At first glance (on my iPhone) I thought it was a chocolate-phase fallow deer. Texas has many free-ranging exotics and fallow deer are one of the most prolific. But after close examination I have determined this is a black (melanistic) whitetail.

Whereas albinism is a lack of pigment, melanism is a hyper blast of black pigment. It is fairly common in some species such as fox squirrels and is evident in jaguars and leopards.

“Black panthers” for example are not a separate species, but simply melanistic jaguars and leopards.

Luling is located 49 miles south of Austin. Over the years I have documented a number of melanistic whitetails within about a 50-mile radius of Austin. Several have been northwest of Austin and around San Marcos.

Hennigan said the owner of the land where he was hunting reported seeing numerous does this color over the years, but very few bucks. This is probably because that part of the state has what wildlife managers would consider an out-of whack-buck to doe ratio. It can run as high as 10 does to one buck on certain tracts of land so it would not be surprising to see far more melanistic does than bucks.

Also, hunters are more likely to kill the bucks, and in recent years several melanistic bucks have been reported taken in Texas. It is not illegal to kill color-phase whitetails in Texas, and there is no official count of them among the 600,000 plus deer killed here every year.

I have personally never laid eyes on a melanistic whitetail, but I have seen both piebald and leucistic (with blue eyes) whitetails in the wild. I am headed to the Austin area quite a bit this fall, and I plan to check-out some of the areas with historically high proportions of melanism. With luck, I will capture some photos.

Whitetails are intriguing animals, and any variation in color, antler or size is always the talk about deer camp.

Chester Moore