White Buffalo

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.

White buffalo are extremely rare; the National Bison Association has estimated that they only occur in approximately one out of every 10 million births.