There's nothing quite like your first deer. One Pennsylvania 13-year-old's first harvest was especially memorable: a piebald buck nicknamed "The Ghost."
Alex Eckenrod of Hegins, Pennsylvania brought the beautiful buck down on December 9, the last day of Pennsylvania's rifle season, with a little help from her grandfather, Andrew Orwig. The buck was a 9-point with a 17-inch spread but, more impressively, it was also a piebald, with almost entirely white fur.
Alex's grandfather told the York Daily Record that the buck was known in the area as "The Ghost." It had proved an elusive animal to the hunters who had been pursuing it all season and had already been shot at least once.
The Ghost almost slipped past Alex, too. She was supposed to hunt with another family member on December 9, but he was unable to go last minute. Orwig agreed to take his granddaughter out instead and outfitted Alex in his own hunting clothes. He let her take a pick from his guns; she chose a 12-gauge shotgun with a rifled slug barrel.
The next morning, the pair drove out to the farm they planned to hunt and headed out into the fog to look for deer. Orwig recounted to the York Daily Record that, as they walked through the pasture, "I happened to look off to the left toward the creek and I see this white form in the mist. I had to stop and I was like, is that really what I think it is?"
It was The Ghost, standing just 50 yards away behind a tree. Orwig pointed the buck out to Alex. As they waited, the buck lay down and Alex was able to take a few steps to a better vantage point. When the buck stood up again, she took the shot and the piebald dropped.
Piebald deer are incredibly rare, accounting for less than 2% of the deer population. While Alex's deer was mostly white, piebalds can be spotted with black and white. They get this coloration from a genetic condition that results in the absence of pigmentation in portions of the deer's skin. Piebaldism is different from albinism, which is a complete lack of pigmentation; albino deer are completely white with pink eyes, noses, and hooves.
Alex tagging "The Ghost" caused quite a stir in the town. Other hunters on the property joined the duo to celebrate, and when they went to the butcher shop there were numerous requests to take pictures of the deer.
Alex will be getting a shoulder pedestal mount of the deer. According to the York Daily Record, she wanted to thank her Granpa and the farmer who let them hunt his fields.
READ MORE: Piebald Deer Herd Caught on Video
