Much of that habitat has been obliterated by humans through the 1960s-to-present, however, so they donвЂ™t have much to hold on to today. Most of them formed in the Lower keys, so thatвЂ™s where Key Deer survived then. Due to varying limestone formations of the Keys Island chain there were вЂ“ and in a VERY FEW places still are вЂ“ depressions that hold fresh water from seasonal rain storms. But then, youвЂ™re done! You just HAVE to get a drink of fresh water from somewhere to survive. On the other hand, one can get a certain amount of water directly from the plants and another bit from metabolism. Food was not, and even now, is not generally the main problem вЂ“ Key Deer eat more than 150 species of plants. What likely started their genetic separation from their historic counterparts on the mainland wasвЂ¦drinking water. Historically, the Key Deer first likely roamed all of the Key island chain, from the Florida mainland down to existing вЂњKey WestвЂќ.

(see Key Deer History and Biology sections for the science). While there are still people circulating unfounded stories that white men just brought upper-states whitetails to the Islands to start or enrich the existing deer stock in the past 50-100 years, genetic studies prove them wrong: miniature Key deer have been in the Keys way longer than вЂњpalefaceвЂќ has ever shown up in the Keys. Besides the Key Deer in the Florida Keys, this phenomenon has been documented worldwide: the pony-sized Island Mammoths that used to live on Wrangel Island near Siberia, dwarf Elephants that once lived on Crete, and dwarf Emus that once lived on islands around Australia. Unlike your Big Brother, you actually have better survival chances since you need less food, less drinking water, and can find smaller, easier shelter. ItвЂ™s called the вЂњIsland Dwarfing EffectвЂќ. Typically, living things stuck on livable areas but with limited resources (food, water, shelter) tend to become smaller in size. The waters rose and deer got stuck on the Keys. The Key Deer are historical colonizers of the Florida Keys from days some 30,000-20,000 years ago when lowered sea levels had the whole Keys chain firmly attached to the Florida mainland: back then whitetails roamed up and down the KeysвЂ¦before being cut off from the mainland by the last glaciation melt period around 10,000 years ago. From personal experience, few of the large, old bucks tip the scales just past a hundred pounds, but they have been extremely lucky to have survived to reach that size (see the Key Deer Biology section for details).

On average, they stand only about 24 to 32 inches at the shoulder.вЂќ ThatвЂ™s about the size of a medium-sized German Shepherd. Adult females, or does, weigh slightly less. Academic literature cites вЂњadult males, or bucks, weigh only 55-75 pounds. It is by far the smallest of any deer in the Americas. The Key Deer, Odocoileus virginianus clavium, is a subspecies of the ordinary ubiquitous Virginia Whitetail Deer, but the Key Deer has evolved and presently exists in the вЂњwildвЂќ only on a few islands in the Florida Keys.

Key Deer Basics: WhatвЂ™s a Key Deer and what makes them so special?.

Keywe deer