{"id":395599,"date":"2025-09-03T21:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/395599\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T21:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:54:18","slug":"rare-white-deer-stuns-visitors-at-scottish-beauty-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/395599\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare white deer stuns visitors at Scottish beauty spot\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visitors say the moment they spotted a white deer at a beauty spot in Scotland was like something out of a fairytale.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dutch photographer Jos\u00e9 van Hell caught incredible photos of the rare creature at the Scottish Wildlife Trust\u2019s Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre.<\/p>\n

Kiera Fox and her son Orryn couldn\u2019t believe their eyes when they visited earlier this month and spotted the animal.<\/p>\n

\"AJos\u00e9 van HellA rare white deer was spotted at the Scottish Wildlife Trust\u2019s Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre. Jos\u00e9 van Hell<\/p>\n

The white fallow buck was pictured resting by the lake at the nature reserve. Although they look very different to other deer, they are not albinos and have normal eye pigmentation.<\/p>\n

The British Deer Society says that unusually pale coats in any deer are usually a result of under-production of melanin, the chemical responsible for skin pigmentation.<\/p>\n

The family had visited to see the reserve\u2019s beloved ospreys, but they were instead taken aback by the white deer.<\/p>\n

The Perthshire beauty spot covers 130 hectares, including woodland, a freshwater loch and the visitor centre and hides.<\/p>\n

\"KieraSuppliedKiera Fox and her son Orryn spotted the white deer at Loch of the Lowes. Supplied<\/p>\n

In some Celtic mythology, white deer are seen as messengers from the other world.<\/p>\n

Their white appearance is caused by leucism \u2013 a rare genetic pattern that reduces levels of the pigment responsible for colour.<\/p>\n

Kiera told STV News: \u201cWe were both delighted to see it.<\/p>\n

\"AJos\u00e9 van HellA rare white deer was spotted at the Scottish Wildlife Trust\u2019s Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre. Jos\u00e9 van Hell<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had positioned itself at the edge of the loch and was in a great spot to see with the binoculars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked very peaceful, like something from a children\u2019s fairytale book.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had originally come to try and catch a glimpse of the ospreys, which weren\u2019t around at the time we visited, so seeing this definitely made our day.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son loved his visit, and the white stag was definitely a bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AJos\u00e9 van HellA rare white deer was spotted at the Scottish Wildlife Trust\u2019s Loch of the Lowes Visitor Centre. Jos\u00e9 van HellSTV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visitors say the moment they spotted a white deer at a beauty spot in Scotland was like something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-395599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115142594820981897","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}