1 out of every 100,000 elk.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\nKarie Decker, director of Wildlife and Habitat for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, can verify that statistic, but there\u2019s no denying that piebald elk are a rare sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe generally say it’s less than 1% of the population,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s hard to pin down because a lot of fawns that are born with this condition don’t live very long, so you don’t actually see them in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decker said there haven\u2019t been any studies specifically on piebald elk, except for the fact that both parents must have the same recessive gene for the trait to manifest in their offspring. One out of two isn\u2019t good enough, and a piebald parent isn\u2019t guaranteed to produce a matching calf.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s possible for a piebald doe to produce completely normal-looking calves,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a mix of white and brown hair and skin, but it depends on how the female\u2019s gene shows up and combines with the male gene.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piebald Problems<\/p>\n
Piebald elk could be more common than biologists realize, but evidence suggests that most elk calves born with the recessive gene don\u2019t survive to adulthood. Decker said being piebald can come with a host of genetic issues that can cripple or kill a calf not long after its birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are other physical traits that piebald deer, elk, and other animals can experience,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of calves have skeletal deformities, which can be fairly mild or fairly severe, that don’t allow them to live very long. The coloration isn\u2019t causing the deformities, but the group of recessive genes that cause them can come along with (piebaldism).\u201d<\/p>\n
A skeletal deformity, especially in the long bones of the legs, can be a death sentence for a calf before it\u2019s born. They\u2019ll usually die of natural causes or be more easily picked off by a predator shortly after birth.<\/p>\n
Seeing a piebald elk in adulthood means it was born without any skeletal deformities, or it\u2019s managed to thrive despite any genetic setbacks. According\u00a0to Moore, the piebald elk he spotted was young, healthy, and thriving in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve heard older cow elk can get grayed up, but I\u2019ve never seen one,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople who\u2019ve seen my pictures have said this one was actually a pretty young cow, and she seemed to be doing just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even Decker hasn\u2019t seen a piebald elk in the wild. When someone with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation hasn\u2019t seen one, you know it\u2019s special.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely rare,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing, something that we\u2019re going to see in the landscape often.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Piebald-elk-160A9097-2-10.19.25.jpg\")
The piebald elk cow along the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody. Most piebald elk don’t make it to adulthood, but this extremely rare cow appeared to be young and healthy. (Courtesy Michael Moore)White Meat?<\/p>\n
Assuming this piebald elk survives the winter, she could go on to produce healthy calves. Some of them could even be piebald, but only if she finds and mates with a bull elk carrying that specific recessive gene.<\/p>\n
A piebald cow elk is rare enough, but nearly all of those spotted have been cows. A piebald bull could be the Holy Grail of elk for lucky photographers and hunters, if there are any out there.<\/p>\n
Since piebaldism affects the skin and hair of animals, could it also affect their meat? Would a piebald elk taste differently from a normal elk?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t suspect it would,\u201d Decker said. \u201cThe genetic mutation is primarily focused on the skin and hair, so I can’t imagine that it would affect the meat, but I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve ever eaten a piebald elk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore got a few shots of the piebald elk before it lay down in a less-than-optimal position for photography. He didn\u2019t get the fall rut he was hoping for that day, but a 1-in-100,000 elk wasn\u2019t a bad consolation prize.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s nothing quite like getting up there when the bulls are acting pretty aggressive and you can hear them bugling,\u201d he said. \u201cI got a few photos of the piebald elk before she lay down with her back to me. Not a lot of great photos, but still worth seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Powell resident Michael Moore ventured up the South Fork of the Shoshone River, east of Cody, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-237748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Piebald-elk-160A9086-2-10.19.25.jpg\")
The piebald elk cow along the South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody. Most piebald elk don’t make it to adulthood, but this extremely rare cow appeared to be young and healthy. (Courtesy Michael Moore)Standing Out In A Crowd<\/p>\n