A piebald or pied animal is one that has a pattern of unpigmented spots (white) on a pigmented background of hair, feathers or scales. Thus a piebald black and white dog is a black dog with white spots. The animal's skin under the white background is not pigmented. Location of the unpigmented spots is dependent on the migration of melanoblasts (primordial pigment cells) from the

neural crest Neural crest cells are a temporary group of cells unique to vertebrates that arise from the embryonic ectoderm germ layer, and in turn give rise to a diverse cell lineage—including melanocytes, craniofacial cartilage and bone, smooth muscle, per ...

to paired bilateral locations in the skin of the early embryo. The resulting pattern appears symmetrical only if melanoblasts migrate to both locations of a pair and proliferate to the same degree in both locations. The appearance of symmetry can be obliterated if the proliferation of the melanocytes (pigment cells) within the developing spots is so great that the sizes of the spots increase to the point that some of the spots merge, leaving only small areas of the white background among the spots and at the tips of the extremities. Animals with this pattern may include

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es,

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s, cetaceans,

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...

s, and snakes. Some animals also exhibit colouration of the irises of the eye that match the surrounding skin (blue eyes for pink skin, brown for dark). The underlying genetic cause is related to a condition known as

leucism Leucism () is a wide variety of conditions that result in the partial loss of pigmentation in an animal—causing white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales, or cuticles, but not the eyes. It is occasionally spelled ...

. In

medieval English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

"pied" indicated alternating contrasting colours making up the quarters of an item of costume or livery device in heraldry. Court jesters and

minstrels A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in Middle Ages, medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobatics, acrobat, singer or jester, fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to ...

are sometimes depicted in pied costume; this is the origin of the name of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Etymology

The word "piebald" originates from a combination of "pie," from " magpie", and "bald", meaning "white patch" or spot. The reference is to the distinctive black-and-white plumage of the magpie.

Horses

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

''piebald'' (black and white) and ''

skewbald Skewbald is a colour pattern of horses. A skewbald horse has a coat made up of white patches on a non-black base coat, such as chestnut, bay, or any colour besides black coat. Skewbald horses which are bay and white (bay is a reddish-brown colou ...

'' (white and any colour other than black) are together known as ''coloured''. In

North American English North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...

, the term for this colouring pattern is

pinto Pinto is a Portuguese language, Portuguese, Spanish language, Spanish, Sephardi Jews, Jewish (Sephardic), and Italian language, Italian surname. It is a high-frequency surname in all List of countries and territories where Portuguese is an officia ...

, with the specialized term "paint" referring specifically to a breed of horse with American Quarter Horse or

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

bloodlines in addition to being spotted, whereas ''pinto'' refers to a spotted horse of any breed. In American usage, horse enthusiasts usually do not use the term "piebald," but rather describe the colour shade of a pinto literally with terms such as "black and white" for a piebald, "brown and white," or "bay and white," for skewbalds, or color-specific modifiers such as "bay pinto", "sorrel pinto," "buckskin pinto," and such.

Genetically Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar working i ...

, a piebald horse begins with a

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

base coat colour, and then the horse also has an

allele An allele (, ; ; modern formation from Greek ἄλλος ''állos'', "other") is a variation of the same sequence of nucleotides at the same place on a long DNA molecule, as described in leading textbooks on genetics and evolution. ::"The chro ...

for one of three basic spotting patterns overlaying the base colour. The most common coloured spotting pattern is called

tobiano Tobiano is a spotted color pattern commonly seen in pinto horses, produced by a dominant gene. The tobiano gene produces white-haired, pink-skinned patches on a base coat color. The coloration is almost always present from birth and does not c ...

, and is a

dominant gene In genetics, dominance is the phenomenon of one variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking or overriding the effect of a different variant of the same gene on the other copy of the chromosome. The first variant is termed dominant and t ...

. Tobiano creates spots that are large and rounded, usually with a somewhat vertical orientation, with white that usually crosses the back of the horse, white on the legs, with the head mostly dark. Three less common spotting

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...

s are the sabino, frame, and splash

overo Overo refers to several genetically unrelated pinto coloration patterns of white-over-dark body markings in horses, and is a term used by the American Paint Horse Association to classify a set of pinto patterns that are not tobiano. ''Overo'' is ...

genes, which create various patterns that are mostly dark, with jagged spotting, often with a horizontal orientation, white on the head. The frame variant has dark or minimally marked legs. The sabino pattern can be very minimal, usually adding white that runs up the legs onto the belly or flanks, with "lacy" or roaning at the edge of the white, plus white on the head that either extends past the eye, over the chin, or both. The genetics of overo and sabino are not yet fully understood, but they can appear in the offspring of two solid-coloured parents, whereas a tobiano must always have at least one tobiano parent.

Dogs

In many dog breeds the Piebald gene is common. The white parts of the fur interrupt the pigemented coat patterns. Dogs that may have a spotted or multicolored coat, are often called piebald if their body is almost entirely white or another solid color with spotting and patches on the head and neck. The allele is called sP on the S-locus and is localised with the MITF gene. It is

recessive In genetics, dominance is the phenomenon of one variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking or overriding the effect of a different variant of the same gene on the other copy of the chromosome. The first variant is termed dominant and t ...

, therefore

homozygous Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mo ...

individuals show this coat pattern, whereas the heterozygous carriers can be of solid color. File:Bucovina Sheepdog.jpg,

Bucovina Shepherd Dog The Romanian Bucovina Shepherd Dog ( ro, Ciobănesc Românesc de Bucovina) is a breed of livestock guardian dogs native to historical Bukovina (Bucovina) region. The breed is closely related to other livestock guardian breeds of the region, such ...

File:Can Setter dog GFDL.jpg, Red

Irish Setter The Irish Setter ( ga, sotar rua, literally "red setter") is a setter, a breed of gundog, and family dog. The term ''Irish Setter'' is commonly used to encompass the show-bred dog recognised by the American Kennel Club as well as the field-bred ...

without Piebald spotting File:Irish Red And White Setter 2005.jpg, Irish Setter red and white due to the Piebald gene File:Biewer Yorkie.jpg, A Biewer Terrier is a Blue and Tan Yorkie with white coat pattern. File:Beagle 600.jpg, The

Beagle The beagle is a breed of small scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking instincts, th ...

is usually tricolor by the Piebald gene. File:Beagle Upsy.jpg, Beagles with recessive red have the Piebald gene as well.

Other animals

The various types of magpie gave their name to pied coloration. The bald eagle derives its name from the word "piebald" in reference to the contrast of its white head and tail with dark body. Nadine Gordimer used the term in ''

The Conservationist ''The Conservationist'' is a 1974 novel by the South African writer Nadine Gordimer. The book was a joint winner of the Booker-McConnell Prize for fiction. It is described as more complex in design and technique than Gordimer's earlier novels. ...

'' when referring to

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

s. Many other animal species may also be "pied" or piebald including, but not limited to,

s and squirrels.

Snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

s, especially

ball python The ball python (''Python regius''), also called the royal python, is a python species native to West and Central Africa, where it lives in grasslands, shrublands and open forests. This nonvenomous constrictor is the smallest of the African p ...

s and corn snakes, may also exhibit seemingly varying patches of completely pigmentless scales along with patches of pigmented scales. In 2013, a piebald blood python was discovered in Sumatra. Some domesticated foxes born from the Russian Institute of Cytology and Genetics also carry this coloring.

Bicolor cat Bicolor or bicolour may refer to: * Bicolour (flag), a flag of two color bands ** Bicolour, the flag of Haiti ** in the widest sense, any flag design with two colors, see List of flags by number of colors#2 * Bicolor cat, or piebald cat, a cat ...

s carry the white spotting gene (incorrectly called the piebald gene). The same pattern that applies to cats also applies to dogs when the white spotting gene involved is indeed piebald and not another white-causing gene found in dogs. The piebald gene is also found in cows, ferrets, domestic goats, goldfish, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, and fancy rats. File:Bicolor cat - Black and White.jpg,

File:Holstein heifer.jpg,

Holstein cow Holstein Friesians (often shortened to Holsteins in North America, while the term Friesians is often used in the UK and Ireland) are a breed of dairy cattle that originated in the Dutch provinces of North Holland and Friesland, and Schleswig-Ho ...

File:Hausmeerschweinchen drei.JPG,

Guinea pig The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus '' Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ...

s File:Mesocricetus auratus.jpg,

Hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera.Fox, Sue. 2006. ''Hamsters''. T.F.H. Publications Inc. They have become established as popular small pets. The ...

File:Salon agriculture 2009 - furet recentre.jpg, Ferret File:Goat بز 09.jpg,

Goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

and

Simmental The Simmental ( en, Simme Valley) is an alpine valley in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland. It expands from Lenk to Boltigen, in a more or less south-north direction (Obersimmental), and from there to the valley exit at Wimmis near Spiez it ta ...

breeds of cattle typically exhibit

piebaldism Piebaldism refers to the absence of mature melanin-forming cells (melanocytes) in certain areas of the skin and hair. It is a rare autosomal dominant disorder of melanocyte development.James, William; Berger, Timothy; Elston, Dirk (2005). ''Andrews ...

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* (extremely rare wild piebald moose photographed in northwest

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada) {{Equine coat colors Horse coat colors Animal coat colors Dog anatomy Cat coat types Bird colours Disturbances of pigmentation