Wisconsin brothers capture rare white deer on video

MANITOWISH WATERS, Wis. (WMTV/Gray News) - Brandon and Kyle Bushaw couldn’t believe their eyes when they came across a rare sight in northern Wisconsin last week.

WMTV-TV reported the brothers were driving in Vilas County when a white deer stepped out of the woods and crossed right in front of their car.

“It felt pretty surreal,” said Brandon Bushaw. “It felt like it wasn’t really happening,”

The brothers were on a family vacation when Kyle Bushaw first spotted the deer.

“I says, ‘Holy crap, what was that?’ That was not a dog. It was big and it was bright white,” Kyle Bushaw said.

The brothers turned the car around and Brandon Bushaw started filming on his phone from the passenger seat.

“Right as we rolled up, it was probably 10 feet in front of us, and it came out of the ditch. You can see in the video it just perfectly crosses over the highway,” said Brandon Bushaw.

The brothers pulled over and watched as the doe made her way across the road and then back into the woods.

“I couldn’t believe it was happening because I’m born and raised in Wisconsin and a lot of my friends are, and I can’t think of a single person I know that has seen an albino or a white deer,” Brandon Bushaw said.

“It was definitely a surprise for us and probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing for a lot of people, so it was pretty cool,” added Kyle Bushaw.

According to MaLenna Smith with the Protect the White Deer organization, seeing a white or albino deer is extremely rare and something most people won’t experience in their lifetime. Smith is certain the deer the Bushaw brothers saw was a white deer and not an albino.

White deer have been protected in Wisconsin since 1940, so residents of the state may see a few more than in other parts of the country, she said.

Experts estimate 1 in every 20,000 deer is white.

An albino deer is even rarer.

The difference between a white deer and an albino is in the eyes and hooves. Albino deer will have pinkish eyes and hooves, not dark ones.

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