Can you see it? Biologists spot ‘one-in-a-million anomaly’ dashing across Texas desert

A team of biologists caught a glimpse of a “one-in-a-million anomaly” in the West Texas desert, state wildlife officials say.

It’s not easy to see at first, dashing and bounding up a shaded mountainside, but as the biologists swoop in close on a helicopter, their camera captures brief but clear evidence.

“The rarest of rare,” the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife said in a March 29 Facebook post, sharing the video.

Mule deer are a standard sight in the vast Trans-Pecos region, commonplace among the scrub and cacti — but not this one, TPWD said.

This special deer appears all black except for quick flashes of white fur as it dashes away from the whirring helicopter. It stands in stark contrast to the older, larger mule deer running ahead of it, sporting the typical brown and white coloration.

The fawn has melanism, the experts say, a unique condition that can occur throughout the animal kingdom, resulting in darker fur, hair or skin.

Or as TPWD says, melanism is “a rare random genetic anomaly believed to be caused by mutations in the melanicortin 1 receptor gene (MC1R) which leads to an over production of the pigment melanin.”

Experts don’t know how rare melanism is in mule deer, “but it’s estimated to be around 1 in several million,” the post read, making such deer more uncommon than albinos or splotch-patterned piebalds.

Melanism can be advantageous in nature, according to TPWD.

The “additional pigmentation protects [animals] from sunlight exposure and increases their ability to absorb heat in cold weather. The darker coloration also makes it easier for those animals active at night to conceal themselves.”

This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Can you see it? Biologists spot ‘one-in-a-million anomaly’ dashing across Texas desert."