Rare all-white deer spotted wandering through New Forest

Daily Echo Camera Club member, Paul Brady, has snapped an impressive shot of an all white deer walking near Bashford Lakes in the New Forest.

The picture shows a fallow deer with a white coat, not a separate species – the white animals are a colour variant of fallow deer, which are native to the New Forest and the most common deer species there.

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The pale colour is caused by genetics, usually leucism, which reduces pigment in the coat. This is different from albinism and most white fallow deer have dark eyes and noses.

White fallow deer are rare, but the New Forest is one of the few places in the UK where they can be regularly spotted due to the long-established, stable deer population.

Their colour makes them more visible to predators and people.