The Seneca White Deer are a rare herd

Herd

Herd refers to a social grouping of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic, and also to the form of collective animal behavior associated with this or as a verb, to herd, to its control by another species such as humans or dogs.The term herd is generally applied to mammals,...

 of deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 living within the confines of the former Seneca Army Depot

Seneca Army Depot

The former Seneca Army Depot occupied 10,587 acres between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake in Seneca County, New York. It was used as a munitions storage and disposal facility by the United States Army from 1941 until the 1990s. The Depot was listed in the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission...

 in Seneca County, New York

Seneca County, New York

As of the census of 2000, there were 33,342 people, 12,630 households, and 8,626 families residing in the county. The population density was 103 people per square mile . There were 14,794 housing units at an average density of 46 per square mile...

. When the 10600 acres (42.9 km²) depot was created in 1941, a 24 miles (38.6 km) fence was erected around its perimeter, isolating a small herd of White-tailed deer

White-tailed Deer

The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...

, some of whom had white coats. These deer are not albino, but instead carry a set of recessive genes for all-white coats. The fence creates a genetic bottleneck causing high levels of inbreeding. The constant inbreeding (mating of close relatives like parents and children, brothers and sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, greatgrandparents and greatgrandchildren...etc.) has allowed the various genes to align in offspring to be expressed as white deer. Incomplete alignment produces the piebald or brown/white splotched deer. With the artificial protection of the fence, the wildlife inside the depot flourished. The white deer are an example of artificial selection

Artificial selection

Artificial selection describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. The term was utilized by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive...

 and are subject to inbreeding depression which can lead to reduced fecundity and malformations. The white deer population behind the fence at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center is subject to severe foot and leg deformities leading to crippling.http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/history/whitedr.htm

In the 1950s, the depot commander forbade GI's from shooting any white deer. The deer population has since grown to about 700 head, approximately 300 of which are white, making it the largest herd of white deer in the world.

Future of the herd

Since the depot's closure, the future of the deer has been uncertain. The visibility of white deer makes them easy prey for hunters and natural enemies like coyote

Coyote

The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...

s, and such a herd would not survive in the wild. The depot land is New York's largest block of land available for development and some new uses have been found for it. A new maximum security state prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 was built on the eastern rim and the former barracks

Barracks

Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...

 on the northern tip was converted into housing for troubled teenagers. Plans to buy 4700 acres (19 km²) of land to build an ethanol

Ethanol

Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...

 and biofuel

Biofuel

Biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases...

 electricity production

Electricity generation

Electricity generation is the process of generating electric energy from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...

 center and to plant crops of willow trees

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

 and switch grass to be converted into fuel was proposed. In 2006, a business plan was submitted to the Seneca County Industrial Development Agency, owners of the depot property, to convert the land into a conservation park and Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

, but the plan was denied.

External links

• Seneca White Deer Inc.
• video of white deer in Wisconsin at PBS
  Public Broadcasting Service
  The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....