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Name: Darrell
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Question:
Black Looking Deer After researching Black Deer I've founf this site. The question of Black Deer has sprung a great interest. I just moved to Middle Georgia and leased a 500 Acre Hunting Club. While Scouting the area before season I noticed that a lot of the deer are a very dark black looking color. I asked around in the area about the color and most have said that it's because of the thick pine and the deep cover of the area. Not getting any sun makes them black. Can you give any insight on this issue.

Replies:
I am not from your area and am not familiar with local populations, but I can say that the color is probably a slight genetic difference that probably developed randomly. There MIGHT be a slight survival advantage from the dark coats that has made it more prevalent, but it is definitely NOT from lack of sun. Here in northern Illinois, for example, we have some isolated populations of eastern gray squirrels that are almost completely black, in other areas there are some that are mostly white, but not albino, they are just local color variations. It is a pretty common phenomenon.

J. Elliott

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