THIS rare white deer has been captured on camera frolicking through the picturesque countryside on the outskirts of Chelmsford.
Natasha Begent, 16, from Chelmsford, was on a country walk with relatives when she spotted the creature running with a herd of brown deer and a paler one in Highwood.
The Writtle College student said: "I had my camera with me and I came across a herd of them and managed to get a picture of it.
"I thought it was a bit strange and interesting, I've never seen anything like that before.
"I like to take photos of wildlife, animal, plants and my family. I'm studying animal management at the moment, but would love to go into wildlife photography."
The deer is possibly an albino, which means it suffers from an extremely rare genetic condition called albinism that can appear in any species of animal and means they do not produce any pigment in their skin.
Helen McRobie, a senior lecturer in biomedical science at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, inspected the pictures.
Two distinctly different pale deer can be seen in the photos taken by Natasha – one much whiter than the other.
Helen said: "The really white one is definitely an albino, but the other one looks too cream coloured – it could have only one of the genes. It's pretty rare in this area but they do pop up occasionally.
"Albinism occurs when there are two copies of the same recessive gene, so this animal has got it from both parents.
"These genes are rare in the population, it's hard to know how many there are in the area as the other gene dominates over it."
It is thought there are around 30,000 regular deer to every one albino in the country.
However, Laura Drake of The Mammal Society has a different take on the genetic make-up of the animals pictured.
"They're Fallow deer, confirmed by the tail pattern, white under the tail with bold black lines either side and along the top of the tail.
"The fallow coat ranges quite a bit. There are four main varieties: common, menil, black and white.
"The white variety, as the one in these images, are not albino but may be a yellowish white. These 'white' deer, which are born sandy, are common, while true albinos are very rare indeed.
"This one is almost certainly a white fallow deer, not albino, due to the yellowing of the coat and faint presence of spots."
