Florida is home to many endangered species of wildlife. A lot of time you never get to see these endangered species because you are unable to enter their habitat or they are so rare to see because their numbers are so few. Today we got to see one up close and personal and that would be the key deer. Key deer are a subspecies of the white-tailed deer and they look just like the ones were used to seeing all over up north except that they look just like miniature versions. They are the smallest deer that currently lives in North America. The only place you can find them though is in the Florida Keys hence their name.
After spending time at Bahia Honda State Park, we were able to swing by the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key to learn a little bit about this species of deer. One thing I learned about them is that they can swim from island to island in search of food and water. Once we left the center, we searched for them while en route to visit the Blue Hole. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any on the drive there, but after arriving at the Blue Hole and walking around observing the only freshwater body of water on the island we were lucky enough to see one up close. The key deer are not like the skittish white-tailed deer we are all familiar with where they will run off if they hear you step on a twig from hundreds of feet away.
The key deer are not afraid of humans since they live in close proximity to us due to urbanization of the island. This is a major issue though because this leads to the deer getting hit by cars or attacked by dogs. We made sure to not bother it while we watched it stand up and eat a bunch of fruit off a palm tree and it was a sight to behold. With more information and education than ever before being made on this endangered species its hoped that their populations will continue to increase and people will be more aware of the deer. For information regarding the key deer visit: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/national-key-deer To learn about the Blue Hole on Big Pine Key you can check out: https://floridahikes.com/blue-hole
Hey Mike,
ReplyDeleteI thought it was so cool when we were able to get to up close to the key deer at blue hole and watch it eat the berries off the tree. They definitely look like tiny version of the deer we see here in Jersey and of course are really cute. I find it really sad that since these deer are always in such close proximity to humans, they no longer fear us and are ending up being killed or injured. It's very important that tourists and residents do not try to feed these deer so that they don't depend on humans for food and stop entering urbanized areas. It is great though that organizations such as the National Key Deer Refuge are trying to protect and conserve this endangered species.