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Steve Huffaker, director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, made an emergency order last week making it illegal to shoot the albino cow moose, which has been spotted with a black calf on private land in southeastern Idaho. The moose hunting season opened Tuesday.

The move came after the Fish and Game Commission received calls and petitions from residents near Soda Spring pleading for the animal's protection.

Normally, only 1 in 100,000 moose have the albino trait, which is recessive. But the gene appears to run in the herd in southeastern Idaho, where Toweill theorizes the probability of an albino moose may be 1 in 10,000.

Alaska game officials voted in August to protect a rare white bear in Juneau after concerned residents flooded them with e-mails and phone calls. The Alaska Board of Game will consider making the prohibition permanent at its meeting in Juneau on Nov. 1-7.