Fate of famous white deer a question mark

[Woody Williams]

See -


www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/16/fate-of-famous-white-deer-a-question-mark/20465873/

[subzero350]

For much of its history, the Seneca Army Depot was home to everything from U.S. Army munitions to radioactive materials used in the Manhattan Project and the nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

In recent years, the most notable inhabitants of the 10,000 acres nestled in farm and winery country have been the ghost-like white deer there. A variation of white-tailed deer, the estimated 200 white deer roaming the property are not albino — they have brown eyes, not pink.

Is it just pure coincidence there are 200 white deer living on a property that used to house radioactive material?

I am curious to know if any biological studies have been done on these white deer to determine if their genome was influenced by radioactive materials.

[beermanbrian]

Dec 16, 2014 14:29:27 GMT -5 subzero350 said:

For much of its history, the Seneca Army Depot was home to everything from U.S. Army munitions to radioactive materials used in the Manhattan Project and the nuclear weapons during the Cold War.

In recent years, the most notable inhabitants of the 10,000 acres nestled in farm and winery country have been the ghost-like white deer there. A variation of white-tailed deer, the estimated 200 white deer roaming the property are not albino — they have brown eyes, not pink.

Is it just pure coincidence there are 200 white deer living on a property that used to house radioactive material?

I am curious to know if any biological studies have been done on these white deer to determine if their genome was influenced by radioactive materials.

And if these deer should be free to breed with deer in the "outside" population.

[ridgerunner]

kill em all...and eat em

[throbak]

Hmmm IHave seen 2 white deer at Big Oaks. And they Have Du

[36fan]

I read up a little about this when I first saw the story. It has nothing to do with the radioactive material. Apparently when the fence went up, there were a few deer with the white recessive trait. Due presence of hte recessive gene in the greatly reduced gene pool, the recessive trait started appearing with much more frequently than "normal". The gov't then let a few hunts occur, with the restriction only brown deer were to be shot ... further increasing the relative frequency of the recessive trait in the population of deer inside the fence.

If the fence were to be taken down, the white trait would quickly become an anomaly again in the next few generations.