A melanistic deer is a white tail deer that is almost black. This condition is caused by an excess of melanism pigment and the genetic cause is unknown.

Dr. John Baccus is the director of the wildlife ecology program at Texas State University, located in San Marcos, Texas, and has been studying melanistic deer for over 13 years. He says, “Central Texas has more of these unusual deer than anywhere else.”

Funny he would say that! Last Thursday afternoon, my son, Randy, who, by the way, lives in San Marcos, was out doing his afternoon run/walk in his neighborhood and excitedly called me and said, “Dad, there’s a melanistic deer right ahead of me!”

He took these two pictures of the unusual deer and sent them to me.

On my August 2nd post I mentioned the rain that we have had and that the rest of our great State was suffering under a class four drought. Just take a look at the yards in San Marcos. The grass looks dead, the trees are hanging on and those folks down there are in trouble!