For those who travel the Overseas Highway on a regular basis, Big Pine Key is equivalent to an extended reduced-speed school zone. The strictly monitored section of roadway is lined by moderately high metal fencing to protect a moderately sized endangered animal: the Key Deer.
The National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key harbors the smallest species of white-tailed deer in the world. While we spotted none along the Highway they wander the surrounding neighborhoods at will, their protected status having expanded the population from less than 30 in the 1950′s to around 800 today.
This diminutive subspecies of the Virginia white-tailed deer stands only 24 – 28 inches tall and weighs less than an average ten year old child. Thought to have been stranded by the same glacial melt which raised sea level and created the keys, they are found only on Big Pine and a few surrounding keys.
More album photos: Heather Dugan Creative on Facebook
Cute dear, When it is younger. It loves to jumps more. If you watch the action of younger dear, surely you will laugh because it funny.
I’ve seen dogs bigger than those Key Deer! But yes, they jump and move about like the fully grown adults that they are!