Piebald

A piebald or pied animal is one that has a pattern of unpigmented spots (white) on a pigmented background of hair, feathers or scales.

Animals with this pattern may include birds, cats, cattle, dogs, foxes, horses, cetaceans, deer, pigs, and snakes.

In medieval English "pied" indicated alternating contrasting colours making up the quarters of an item of costume or livery device in heraldry.

The word "piebald" originates from a combination of "pie," from "magpie", and "bald", meaning "white patch" or spot.

It is recessive, therefore homozygous individuals show this coat pattern, whereas the heterozygous carriers can be of solid color.

A piebald Eastern gray squirrel named Pinto Bean gained prominence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign after many students shared pictures and videos of it online.

The piebald gene is also found in cows, ferrets, domestic goats, goldfish, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, and fancy rats.