PA teen’s first deer killed is legendary piebald buck known as ‘The Ghost’

Plenty of people across the country — and the globe — spend their time hunting ghosts.

Indeed, this teen in Pennsylvania was on the hunt recently, but not of a paranormal sort. She still caught a “ghost” regardless.

The York Daily Record reports how 13-year-old Alex Eckenrod of Hegins, Schuylkill County, was with her grandfather, Andrew Lititiz, in York County last month when she shot her first deer.

But the York Daily Record notes that this wasn’t just any deer: It was a mostly white-haired buck nicknamed “The Ghost” that had been in the crosshairs of many a hunter in the area.

“It was very exciting, I was really happy and very surprised,” Eckenrod told the publication.

According to the National Deer Association, a deer’s partial white color may be attributed to a rare genetic occurrence known as “piebaldism.”

The piebald “anomaly,” says the association, may cause “a range of potential deformities, from coat coloration to skeletal alignment, from mild to severe.”

This is due to the fact “some of the same genes that code for coat color also code for other physical traits,” the association explains. It should also be noted that a piebald deer differs from an albino in that it is not totally white.

But how rare is “rare?” Less than 1% of the deer population, says the New Jersey Fish & Wildlife Department website. Not bad for a first-time kill.

The York Daily Record states how Eckenrod intends to get a should pedestal mount of the piebald that she shot.

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