Seneca White Deer

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Brenda
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While most of you are probably already aware of the efforts to establish a conservation area to protect this herd, I wanted to post this site in case anyone would like to see the video: http://www.senecawhitedeer.org Sadly, it appears that politics and development may win out over ecotourism, as is so often the case.
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Matt
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My thoughts are, although it's ascetically pleasing to have these white deer roaming around the depot, it may be unrealistic to the economy of that region to close off such a developed area to further development.
Maintaining a fenced in wildlife conservancy is not what any government has in mind, since a justification for preserves is that they are free for access. A fence symbolizes that they are not.

In order to protect the deer, this organization wants governments to maintain the fence. “To keep out hunters.” The more proper conservation action would be to legally prohibit the hunting of white deer. Unfortunately that won’t work because, losing the fence would actually reduce the population of white deer because it would open up the population to a larger gene pool. This lack of pigmentation, caused by inbreeding of a small enclosed population, would breed out in a generation or two. So it’s the fence that’s creating inbreeding, and creating a family of deer that would not last due to natural reasons if it weren’t for the man-made fence. The White Deer is not a stand-alone species and can breed just fine with normal deer. Normal deer pigmentation is an advantage, as it is camouflage. Even though there are no natural deer predators in the area, as far as governments are concerned, human hunters are an important population control for deer. White deer will stand out, be noticed first, and may be threatened because of it.

Populations of isolated and inbred species are a common occurrence. It’s actually the foundation of natural selection. But in this case, it’s not natural, since a temporary man-made structure is maintaining isolation of the population. Since conservation conserves nature and doesn’t encourage design of it, I can’t say I’m totally for it.

But it does encourage people to stand up for protecting land and animals and fight development, so that I’m for.
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Brenda
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It's not so much the development, as the location of the proposed development. Isolation certainly hasn't benefited the overall condition of the population, and I am torn over whether a "herd" which only bears the distinction of carrying a recessive gene deserves protection. However, they're not the only wildlife within the conservation area. I believe that a better route would be to make the taking of white deer illegal. While not having the area totally fenced in would reduce the number of white deer within the area, it would ultimately improve the condition of the population, and I don't believe that they would entirely cease to exist there. Conservation should not be by design, but the population at the former depot already exists and, having grown up with them, I would hate to see them eradicated.
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nvr2low

a question on the topic, is there an easy place to view these deer? i have heard of them but dont know where to go to see them.
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Brenda
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If you take Route 96A between Geneva and Sampson State Park, you will pass by the old depot fence. The fence runs along that road mainly between the northwestern entrance to the depot, where there is now a youth facility (Horizons?), and Kennedy Rd., driving south. The best times to view good numbers of deer are either morning or evening, though depending upon the weather they can be seen at any time. Be sure to bring a camera!
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nvr2low

ive got the camera covered, i just needed to know where they are
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Brenda
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I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be vague. They can be seen browsing all along that fenceline. The fence is 8' (?) chain link, rather than a solid fence.
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nvr2low

i will have to check it out sometime
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