Key Deer

[Tmai]

These little guys grow no taller than 3 feet at the shoulder. An endangered species in the FL Keys, they are related to the white tail deer, but live only on Big Pine Key and a few surrounding keys. Mom and baby here.

[Mehera]

The mule tails around here are anything but endangered. Maybe these little ones wouldn't eat so many of my flowers. Cute, though!

[Hoa Tony Nguyen]

Very cute pictures!
Cheers. Hoa.

[Piper]

I saw these guys back in '94. We drove out to Deer Key and hung around till sunset. They came out of the woods foraging for dinner at that time. Otherwise they were quite shy. What time of day did you snap these pics, Tami?

Julie

[bench72]

awww... sooo cute!!! I want one!

[Tmai]

Probably took the pic in late morning. If you drive slowly thru the sanctuary and surrounding neighborhoods, or walked some of the trails you can see them almost anytime. According to the USFWS, there are about 800 deer now, up from about 60 in 1950's. http://www.fws.gov/nationalkeydeer/

Tmai

[Diane]

Yea, they look cute in pictures.... but not so great when they are devouring your landscaping.. We have white tail here and they are considered only slightly higher on the esteem scale than the rats....

[Tmai]

Know what you mean! Fortunately these guys are so little they don't bother too much, but you DO see fences on the island!

[Tindomul1of9]

That is too cooL!
Many species when trapped on islands evolve into either miniature forms of thier ancestors, or larger forms. Examples would be on the island of Flores, east of bali they found the ancirent bones of Homo floresiensis, a mini proto0human species!!!!! They were identical to Homo erectus which lived about 2 or more millions of years ago, except that they were miniature versions of H. erectus. I believe scientists have found the fossils of mini elephants too on that same island!
I love nature!

[Molly Taco]

Pretty cool Stuff, Tindo.
Cin