Updated, Dec. 4
A few lucky Islanders have taken in a rare and, some might call, majestic treat: a white stag deer.
There have been firsthand reports of the rare animal shared on the popular Facebook group Islanders Talk, and some Island hunters have spotted it.
Residents in the Tiah’s Cove neighborhood in West Tisbury have spotted the white stag recently, including Phyllis Segal, who saw it outside her home in mid-November.
Segal described seeing the deer as if she saw an apparition. She said that she spotted it just outside her window, walking out of a wooden area. “It was as clear as could be,” Segal said. “I was pretty stunned, because I had never seen anything like it.
“We looked at each other, and he turned around and slowly walked away,” the West Tisbury resident said of her experience.
The white stag has different meanings, according to different cultures and religions. In the Christian Bible, it can represent innocence and purity; in Celtic traditions, it can symbolize that the underworld is near; some Native American cultures believe the stag is like a unicorn, in that it is rare, something special to be left alone; in others it represents hope and regeneration.
Segal, who spotted the deer, tried not to read too much into the mysticism about it, but she couldn’t help but notice that it came around just after the presidential election.
“After the election, I was looking for things to make me feel good,” she said. “So I chose to take it as a good sign.”
But science and spirituality don’t always see eye to eye. State biologists say the white deer has abnormalities, and they aren’t actually good for the gene pool.
Martin Feehan, deer and moose biologist at MassWildlife, is confident that the white deer is what is called a piebald, judging by photos circulating on Facebook and shared by The Times. The pigmentation comes from a genetic mutation that also causes other abnormalities, like spinal issues and clubbed feet. Feehan said that a little less than one in every 100 white-tailed deer are piebalds, but they generally don’t live beyond the fawn stage, because of the spinal issues.
Feehan said that the white deer spotted on the Island is likely not an albino, which is caused by a different mutation. There is also leucism which is the partial loss of all types of pigmentation. Albino deer also have red eyes, and they are even more rare than a piebald. Pigment mutations can also cause a deer to be completely black. Also, albinos don’t have the same physical maladies the way that piebalds do, Feehan said.
One noticeable difference — there is often some brown pigmentation in a piebald, typically spots on the deer’s coat, or around the hooves. Feehan, noting that he isn’t 100 percent sure the deer on the Island is a piebald (because of poor-quality photos), noted that it looked like there was some brown pigmentation around the deer’s hooves.
Unfortunately, while some Islanders might see a mythic creature, or something unique and special, Feehan said that the state actually encourages hunting the animals because of the abnormalities and spinal problems.
“We often are asked if they are allowed to be harvested. We actually encourage people to harvest them, because we don’t want those traits to be passed on,” Feehan said.
But while it might be encouraged, some hunters on the Island aren’t sold on the idea. Some hunters have been known to forgo taking down a white stag if it came into their sights, for different reasons. One is that you wouldn’t want to ruin the fun for others. Some consider it bad luck. But there’s also some practicality to it as well.
Nelson Sigelman, an Island hunter and former editor at The MV Times, noted that many hunters wouldn’t consider it a trophy deer. Hunters only receive two buck tags, he noted, and they tend to choose carefully.
“There’s no honor in being the guy who shoots a deer that captivates the imagination of softhearted nonhunters,” Sigelman said.
He also noted that judging by recent photos, the stag isn’t a “good-looking deer. Keep in mind that the deer we shoot are destined for the table,” he said.
Brian Athearn, also a hunter on the Island, says there’s actually a myth that has been passed down through generations — one he believed originated in Midwestern states — that it’s bad luck to shoot a white deer. A persistent legend has it that hunters won’t ever bag a deer again after shooting a white deer. Athearn is among those who isn’t going anywhere near shooting the white deer.
“I don’t think I could shoot it,” Athearn said. “It’s super-bad mojo to shoot something like that.”
But still, he said, some Island hunters are actively looking to hunt it.
For Segal, the homeowner in West Tisbury, she won’t be taking up hunting anytime soon.
“I’m not a hunter, but I couldn’t imagine wanting to take [the white stag] down,” she said. “It was stunning.”
The story was updated to reflect a difference and leucism and an albino deer.
