White buffalo

A white buffalo at the Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Safari in Ashland, Nebraska. This animal is not a true white buffalo, being 1/16 Charolais cattle. It is expected that its coat will darken as it matures.

A white buffalo or white bison is an American bison possessing white fur, and is considered sacred or spiritually significant in several Native American religions; therefore, such buffalo are often visited for prayer and other religious rituals. The coats of buffalo are almost always brown and their skin a dark brown or black; however, white buffalo can result from one of several physical conditions:

  • They may be albinos, in which case they will remain unpigmented throughout their lives, and may also have hearing and vision problems.
  • They may be leucistic, with white fur but blue eyes, instead of the pink seen in albinos.
  • They may have a rare genetic condition which causes a buffalo to be born white, but to become brown within a year or two as it matures.
  • They may be beefalo, a bison–cattle crossbreed, and thus have inherited the white coloration from their cattle ancestry.

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