a number of normal deer were isolated inside the
depot perimeter, and since the military commander there forbade soldiers from
shooting the white deer, their number grew into the hundreds, the
Army Depot in upstate New York is home to a rare herd of white-tailed deer, all
of which carry a recessive gene for all-white coats, the Seneca white deer are
not albinos, they are a natural variation of the white-tailed deer, which are
usually a brown color. These rare deer are leucistic, meaning they lack
pigmentation in the fur, but their eyes are the normal brown color. In the
wild, the very visible white coat makes these rare creatures easy targets for both
human hunters and predators like coyotes, but this particular herd was
protected by a 24-mile (39 km) fence erected around, photograph BrianAdler/Wikimedia Commons,
the white deer were under the Army’s protection until the
Seneca depot closed in the 1990’s, after which the deer fell into the the care
of local volunteers and kind donors. The Seneca County Industrial Development
Agency (IDA) took ownership of the land after the army base formally closed, and
in 2006, the first tours of the Seneca White Deer sanctuary were organized,
unfortunately this did not pan out due to various reasons, but all was not
lost, in 2016, IDA sold 7,000 acres of the depot to Seneca Falls businessman
Earl Martin for $900,000, on condition that the herd of white deer be taken
care of. In a 2018 interview, Martin said that he had bought the property with
the intention of using it for his metalworking and fabrication plant, but
changed his mind after spending time with the rare deer. “The white deer have
turned out to be a very integral part of what we’re doing,” Martin said. “It’s taken on a new life that people can’t
understand unless they’re out there with us.” they have already started conducting
tours of the reserve again late last month, they were planning on doing bus
tours, but then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, so they’ve had to change plans and
offer drive-thru auto tours, instead. The cost of the tour is $25 per vehicle, what a neat trip that would make, and no monkeys to pull off wing mirrors and windshield wipers!
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