Albino Buck Taken In Worth County

Eric Mullis took this genuine albino buck in Worth County on Sept. 17.

Hunters in Worth County are buzzing about the buck Eric Mullis took with his bow, but the 10-point will never appear in any record book. It was a true rarity for another reason.

Eric shot the buck on a Worth County farm where he hunts and farms. It had solid white fur, pink eyes, a pink nose and clear hooves—a true albino.

“A true albino deer is really rare,” said Charlie Killmaster, DNR’s head deer biologist, who saw several photos of Eric’s buck. “We may see one every two or three years. This buck is as albino as they come.”

Killmaster said many of the deer that people think are albinos are actually leucistic. That means a partial loss of pigmentation. They’ll have darker pigmentation on the nose, and the fur will be more yellow than a true white. He said an albino is a complete loss of pigmentation.”

Eric said he has been getting photos of the buck for three years, and this was only the second year that the buck had antlers.

“This buck stayed by himself,” he said. “He lived in a creek bottom between a corn field and a cotton field. He would leave occasionally, but he always came back.”

Eric said he decided to hunt the buck because he was afraid someone else might shoot him if given the chance.

“They’ll probably be some people who will say I shouldn’t have shot the deer, but he was a trophy to me,” he said.

Eric climbed into a box blind adjacent to a harvested corn field on the morning of Sept. 17. At about 7:45, the buck appeared.

“He came in at 47 yards and when he got to 37 yards, he was quartering,” he said. “The shot went through the left shoulder and got all the vitals. He ran about 40 yards and fell.”

Eric shot the buck with a Matthews compound bow.

Eric said the area where he took the buck has produced true albino deer in the past.

“I know of three or four pure white deer that have been taken in a 5-mile radius of here over the past 30 or 40 years,” he said.

Killmaster said if an area has an albino deer, there will likely be more through the years.

“It is a super-recessive trait,” he said. “You can expect it to reoccur in the same area.”

Eric said he will get a full mount of the deer and keep it in his home.

Eric took the buck on a Worth County farm where he hunts and farms. It had solid white fur, pink eyes, a pink nose and clear hooves—a true albino.