Piebald chipmunk

[Vlad the Impaler]

My wife spotted this chipmunk in a neighbors yard, called the family around for a look and took this picture. The zoom and edit made the identification more clear, as this was actually about 50 yards away. At first we thought it was a guinea pig, or other escaped pet.
After a note to the DNR we received a nice return email explaining the rare genetics that cause the coloring patches.
I've seen pictures of piebald deer before, but this was my only first-hand experience with sighting an animal. Thought it was pretty cool, and worth sharing.

 

[Tactically Fat]

Beautiful little critter!

It's a miracle that it's survived long enough to make it to adult-hood, too!

 

[Hkindiana]

Amazing. I used to love my piebald Peacocks

 

[JettaKnight]

Wow, thanks for sharing.


And I learned a new word today.

 

[johntheplinker]

Cool! I've seen and heard of piebald deer and crows, never heard of a chipmunk like that tho!

 

[Vlad the Impaler]

I think I saw another in the same area with a white patch just on his forehead. Probably a family spreading the genes. Hope someone in the family can catch another picture and I'll share some more.

 

[BigRed]

Very cool!

I have yet to run across a piebald deer.

 

[Hkindiana]

Very cool!

I have yet to run across a piebald deer.

There used to be several piebald deer in Bloomington, around the Sycamore Valley gun club.

 

[Leadeye]

Great picture, like others, I've seen this in deer, but never a chipmunk.

 

[Hookeye]

I saw a fox squirrel w a white tail yesterday, not as cool as a piebald chippy but I thought it cool LOL

 

[bobjones223]

Saw a Piebald red Squirrel in Fishers by the courthouse yesterday...all white tail and butt.

 

[NKBJ]

That sure is a cute little rascal.