Lurking amongst the growing human population and urban development of Florida is one of the most beautiful and graceful animals to inhabit this region, the Key Deer.

Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service

WHAT MAKES UP A KEY DEER?
A subspecies of the white-tailed deer, this animal can only be found in the Florida Keys. The deer is reddish-brown to grey-brown in color and males grow antlers annually. Being the smallest of the white-tail deer, they only grow up to 32 inches in shoulder height. Females can weigh up to 65 pounds while males can reach up to 80 pounds. They feed on several species of plants, but the majority of their diet is made up of mangroves and thatch palm berries.

KEY DEER ENVIRONMENT
The Key Deer can be found in many habitats of the Keys including mangrove swamps and freshwater wetlands. Another habitat that the key deer like to inhabit is the pine rocklands. This ecosystem is just as endangered as the deer with much of the habitat destroyed by human development. Pine rocklands are pine forests centered on limestone bedrock. The forest is dominated by one tree called the Florida Slash Pine or Dade County Pine. The forest also contains other plants including tropical palms and hardwood plant species.

ORIGIN OF KEY DEER
The majority of key deer are concentrated on the Lower Keys and Big Pine Key, where a national refuge has been established. There is some mystery surrounding the origins of the Key Deer, but it is believed that they migrated from the mainland of Florida to the Florida Keys by a land bridge during the last ice age. When the glaciers began to melt the land bridge was covered with water and the Florida Keys were formed.

Resources for this article provided by wikipedia.org