White mourning dove and sickly dove... (1 Viewer)

Hi,

I'm new here to this post, and I hope you can help me... I and another writer, (Kathryn) write for a blog for eBirdSeed.com...

I've run across two cases that I simply cannot pin down... One involves what appears to be a white mourning dove that is clearly not an albino, and the other is a fox with some terrible scarring of the face, and deformations of the legs. You can find pictures of these animals at:

http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/index.html

And no, this isn't a sales pitch, and no, this isn't a hoax... (My wife and I took these pictures this Fall on Cape Cod...) We're not asking you to buy anything... Just look... But if ANYONE has even the slightest idea about these two pictures, will you PLEASE post a comment on our site. And if you are as clueless as we are, please ask your fellow naturalists...

The bird is just unique. The fox on the other hand may be sick and dangerous... We just don't know...

Any help you could offer here would be greatly appreciated!!

Alan Speakman

Hi and welcome to the site!

The Mourning Dove appears to be leucistic (partial albino). Birds showing leucism have normally colored eyes because the eyes form independently from the cause of the leucism and are generally unaffected.

I am totally clueless about the fox, but if you see it again and it is acting as if it is sick or injured, you should probably call a local wildlife specialist.

I agree with the leucistic mourning dove.

The wounds on the fox appear to be from another animal. At first i thought a cat, since the eye is involved, but I rather doubt the foot would have been injured by a cat, so perhaps it was another fox, racoon, coyote etc. At any rate, the lack of hair on the legs may just be a result of poor nutrition, presumably caused by the inability to hunt properly with the muzzle and eye injuries. I notice the tail and rump area do not seem to be involved, which often is the case with mange, but I don't have enough experience to rule out mange. As longspur suggested, show the photo to your local wildlife authority and they will be able to give you a better idea.

Scott