Ok, I admit...I had to google to see what the word 'piebald' meant, and here's what I came up with: "A piebald or pied animal is one that has a pattern of unpigmented spots (white) on a pigmented background of hair, feathers or scales."

Now that we've got that into the open, I have to admit, not only have I never heard of a "piebald animal," but I've also never seen one until now.

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According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, this piebald mule deer was spotted off Colorado Highway 160 by resident Tim Sullivan. Talk about being in the right place at the right time, as these creatures are REALLY rare.

Since the chances of seeing one of these are 1 in 500,000, it's very rare to capture a pictures of one like this in the wild. It's pretty crazy to see an almost completely white deer with only a little brown around its neck and shoulders.

This coloration is caused by a genetic abnormality that causes some of the deer's pigment cells to not be able to produce color, resulting in a white coloration. These deer are uncommon because it requires both parents to have the recessive gene.

I've been seeing and hearing about poachers being even more active in the past year, so, hopefully those knuckleheads won't have this beautiful animal mounted on a wall.

Let's hope this deer is able to continue to roam freely and happily in the wild where it belongs.

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