Piebald is one of three inherited color variations that affect few than 1 in 100 deer.

Bob Norwig has been hunting from his families land near Loman off and on for years.But this year, he took a rare prize back to his Fargo, N.D., home Tuesday.Norwig, originally from Loman, hunted all opening day of the firearms season. On that day, his said, his son-in-law got a nice buck.

That next day, Sunday, he was in his stand and saw a partially white deer come into a clearing about 400 yards away from him.

"He crossed a road in front of me, and went out of sight into the woods on the right side,” he said. “I shot into the brush and the deer jumped back across the road and went back into the woods.”

At least he’d gotten a chance to see a piebald deer, Norwig thought to himself, figuring that was the last he’d see of the rare two-toned deer.“About 10 minutes later, she came back out and I got her,” he said of the 140-pound doe.

Norwig said he plans to have a full-body mount of the deer, which is mostly brown from about the shoulders forward and mostly white from the shoulders back to the rear legs.“

I have hunted deer for 35 years and I have never seen one, nor have I ever heard of any one getting one (during deer hunting),” he said. “I knew they existed, but I don’t know what the odds are.”

Norwig said he hadn’t heard of any stories about people seeing the half-white and half-brown deer.Piebald, or two-toned deer, are quite rare, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The deer are mottled white and brown. The piebald is one of several inherited variations in coloration found in white-tailed deer, says Christopher DePerno, DNR deer project leader. Albino, or all white, deer completely lack the pigment melanin. Melanistic, or black, deer have more melanin than usual. All three conditions are rare, affecting fewer than one in 100 deer.

Piebald white-tailed deer sometimes have malformed legs, noses, jaws, spines, or internal organs. DePerno noted.

After shooting the deer, Norwig said he was pretty excited. He said his two brothers came with him to retrieve and gut the deer, and took great care in skinning to not damage the hide.

Bringing the deer to a processing site stirred some excitement, he said.“Everybody came running out to see it,” he said.