Key Deer Research Project - Roel Lopez, Texas A&M University

National Key Deer Refuge

Roel Lopez, Texas A&M University

Tiny key deer -- a doe is shown here with her fawn -- have grown in number as a result of three decades of protection. While urban growth has lessened their habitat, it has also brought new food sources in the form of decorative landscaping.

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Florida's Key Deer on the Rebound

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

More than 30 years ago, Florida's Key Deer was named an endangered species -- as few as 250 of the animals remained. But now that population might have tripled -- in part because of 30 years of protection of the tiny animal (Roel Lopez, Graduate Student, Texas A&M University, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Key Deer Ecology Project)...

"They're a bit smaller, their faces are a bit wider and their noses are a bit shorter, which makes them look like a toy deer -- sort of like a little fawn, even when they're adults."

Roel Lopez heads up a Key Deer ecology project, which generated the new population estimates for the island-bound deer (Lopez)...

"Nearly 4,000 years ago, Key deer were isolated from the mainland of Florida when the glaciers melted and the sea levels rose, thereby forming what we know as the Florida Keys."

Some of the earliest protection began with formation of the National Key Deer Wildlife Refuge. Susan White heads up the refuge on Big Pine Key (Susan White, Acting Deputy Project Leader, Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges, National Key Deer Refuge)...

"They've adapted to island life, they're able to drink brackish water and they're able to survive where a regular white tailed deer would not."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Growth for Florida's Key Deer Herd

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

More than 30 years ago, Florida's Key Deer was named an endangered species -- as few as 250 remained. But now, even though the herd's growth is restricted geographically -- they're found only on the islands of the Florida Keys -- Federal administrators like Susan White are encouraged (Susan White, Acting Deputy Project Leader, Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges, National Key Deer Refuge)....

"Big Pine and No Name Key are the main emphasis of the herd, because they're the only significant Keys that have standing fresh water on it. And while the deer can withstand brackish water, certainly they prefer fresh water."

Roel Lopez heads up a Key Deer research project that's charting significant growth of the herd (Roel Lopez, Graduate Student, Texas A&M University, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Key Deer Ecology Project)...

"Historically the deer population was estimated to be about 250 to 300 deer. The population we now estimate to be 800 deer. So it's now tripled on some islands. It seems that the deer population is doing quite well."

That increase in deer population goes right along with the increase in human population (Lopez)

"In 1968 there were about 500 people on Big Pine and No Name Keys -- the two primary Keys where the majority of the population is found. Now there's about 5,000."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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An endangered species benefits from urban development

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

The first research in 30 years on Florida's endangered Key Deer shows a population that has tripled, in part, because of urban development. Roel Lopez is researching the relationship between the deer and development (Roel Lopez, Graduate Student, Texas A&M University, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Key Deer Ecology Project)...

"Urban development, to a certain degree, is beneficial to Key Deer. Because what it does is create new habitats. Sometimes it's temporary, sometimes it's permanent."

Some of the benefit to the deer came as a result of dredging and filling their island habitat (Lopez)...

"We went from a tidal zone -- that is mediocre from a food standpoint for the deer -- to an area that's capable of growing landscape plants, both native and exotic, that the deer like."

Key Deer refuge administrator Susan White says the deer also benefit from urban development as a result of landscaping (Susan White, Acting Deputy Project Leader, Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges, and National Key Deer Refuge)...

"As people make their residential developments and communities there's lots that are mowed and trees that are cut down. And they put these nice little ornamental flowers around that of course the deer love to eat."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Continued human threat to an endangered deer

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

New research shows Florida's Key Deer population has more than tripled since being named an endangered species thirty years ago. Then, the greatest threat was humans, illegally hunting the tiny deer. The administrator of the Key Deer wildlife refuge, Susan White, says today, human activity remains the deer's greatest challenge (Susan White, Acting Deputy Project Leader, Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges, and National Key Deer Refuge)...

"The threats right now facing the deer are primarily loss of habitat. And the refuge... the primary goal is to maintain that habitat so the deer have a place to live in the face of the development of the Keys."

Virtually all of the Key Deer herd is found on two islands in the Florida Keys. Key Deer research Roel Lopez says that creates another threat from the Highway U.S.1 (Roel Lopez, Graduate Student, Texas A&M University, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Key Deer Ecology Project)...

"This major highway basically splits the population in half. And restricts, but not necessarily prevents, movement."

Although more deer are killed each year in highway accidents, growth of the herd is keeping pace...

"You have more deer so as a result you're going to have more road kills. But the proportion of individuals that actually die on highways is about the same."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.

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Efforts to move a stranded species

I'm Kevin Pierce with the Florida Environment.

Florida's endangered Key Deer have tripled in number since being named endangered more than 30 years ago. But their already limited habitat -- two of the Florida Keys -- faces continued pressure from urban development. Susan White is administrator for the Key Deer Wildlife Refuge (Susan White, Acting Deputy Project Leader, Florida Keys National Wildlife Refuges, and National Key Deer Refuge).

"We find them on other keys all the way to Cudjoe which is 15 miles away but the main herd the core of the herd everybody always comes back to big pine."

In an effort to give the deer more habitat, researchers might experiment with relocating deer to other key islands...

"We're looking at the possibility of repopulating other islands that have suitable habitat, to see if the deer would stay there... if the habitat would be sufficient for them."

But moving the deer too far, presents a dilemma...

"One of the things that makes the Key Deer a Key Deer is of course being in the Keys, and the way it is adapted to down here. You put it up in the Everglades and after time it would develop adaptations suitable to that habitat and then you lose that whole definition of the Key Deer."

For more information, visit floridaenvironment.com. With help from its Environmental Studies Program we're produced at the Whitaker Center at Florida Gulf Coast University and funded by the Southwest Florida Council for Environment Education.