ORIGINAL: Bill Yox
Like I said, the jaw and leg malformities are found in normal colored deer too. It occurs regardless of color. As for the increase in predation due to color/avoidance mech, I would say that if that did exist, predators wouldve taken care of them, thus making this all a moot point!
How do you account for the many healthy and thriving captive pieds?
They are captive. Anything can thrive when it's being taken care of, three legged animals, albinos,etc. I'm not advocating that they can't survive or that they will ruin a herd. I'm advocating that it's probably not a good idea to keep them around, depending on how often it occurs. It's not like they all get predated upon as soon as they hit the ground but I'm willing to bet it effects thier long term survival. Just like if you went to Iraq in an orange jump suit your chances of survival would be less than that of a camoflague wearing person, unless you took other specific measures to offset the increased risk. Could you survive? Sure. Would the probability of your survival be lower all things being equal? Yes. I shouldn't have to explain this to you it's basic biology.
Of course all kinds of malformations occur in a normal population regardless of color. Does that mean he should harbor this recessive gene just because it happens to occur with a specific pigmentation defect? No, it's just another instance of recessive traits that he probably won't want if he is concerned at all about herd health. Really it comes down to this: what would be a the reason for keeping them in the herd? Because they look "neat"? That's fine I was just giving my opinion and I see very few benefits to leaving them in the herd.