A Christmas miracle? Photographer spots rare white reindeer
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Photographer Mads Nordsveen, from Norway, was on a hiking trip with friends when he spotted the almost mythical creature. (Mads Nordsveen/Caters News)
A Norwegian photographer captured a rare sight on Monday: a white reindeer calf seen while he was hiking with friends.
The shutterbug, Mads Nordsveen, 24, told the BBC he spotted the extraordinary critter while on a walk with friends in the mountains of northern Norway.
"He came to me very close and we looked into each other's eyes. He was very calm when he saw that I did not have bad intentions," the photographer told the news agency.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"He behaved as if he was posing for my photos. ... He was very curious and funny, like a little explorer.”
Nordsveen described the animal on Instagram as being so white it “almost disappeared into the snow!”
White reindeer are extremely rare – a white stag was reported in Mala, Sweden, in 2016, the New York Daily News reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The whiteness is the manifestation of a genetic condition that draws the pigment from the fur. Despite this, white reindeer are not considered albino.
Some Scandinavian traditions regard the sighting of a white reindeer a certain sign of good luck.