On july 2nd I was working an excavation job for a lake house just southwest of Austin, Texas and at around 9:00 in the morning the local deer got active. In one particular sighting I saw three does together, two in their usual red summer coats and one that was chocolate brown. Nornally these hill country and south Texas deer have darker winter coats from tan to dark gray. So, I'm wondering if this one doe becomes nearly black in the winter. I know that Hays county just to the south is known to have some melanistic deer. I would think this chocolate brown doe would fit the description of a melanistic whitetail. Has anyone else seen this before?

I've seen it with mule deer. There is a area not far from my house that we hunt and the deer tend to be a darker chocolate color. It seems once we cross the Bonapart river the deer start getting darker and larger. I've asked some of the locals up here about it and some know what I'm talking about. I'll try to remember to ask the CO's next time I bump into them. The moose start getting bigger there to.