On our very first trip to Florida--at least my first trip to Florida--Deb and I were hoping to see key deer as we drove the highway out to Key West. Despite their low numbers and endangered status we found them--easily. 

These tiny deer (adult does only weigh about 40-60 lbs. and bucks only slightly more) are an endangered subspecies of white-tailed deer. The Minnesota whitetails that frequent my backyard, for instance, easily weigh four to five times as much! The Key deer look frail and almost fawn-like even as adults. They are about the same size as a large golden retriever and most do not exceed 26" tall at the shoulder. Fawns only weigh 2-4 lbs. at birth. They are really tiny.

They are only found on the islands of the Florida Keys and have been isolated from other populations of whitetails since the close of the last ice age when rising sea levels inundated what was most of the then Florida coastline leaving only the coast as we know it and the curving string of Keys that jut out into the Gulf of Mexico. While they are good swimmers, and often swim between islands to find forage and fresh water, they cannot reach mainland Florida because of the width of the Moser Channel between Bahai Honda Key and Boot Key. Several thousand years of isolation from the mainland has produced a sufficient genetic divergence from mainland deer populations to warrant the subspecies designation. Their scientific name is Odocoileus virginianus clavium, which is a subspecies of O. virginianus. the whitetail which are familiar to most of us.

The deer are highly habituated to humans and many panhandle for treats on the road and roam people's yards. Their proximity to the roads and other infrastructure often lead to them being struck by cars and attacked by dogs. About 70% of annual mortality is due to being struck by cars. That amounts to about 125-150 deaths per year out of a population of 700-800 animals. 

This particular deer approached our Honda Civic looking for handouts but only received some photo publicity for her efforts. It was important to get as much depth-of-focus as possible so I set aperture at f10 to get the entire deer, road, car, and the environment in focus. The photo that I was imagining was one of this tiny deer looking up at the camera and using the 17-40mm wide-angle lens to enlarge the face relative to the rest of the body and to emphasize the questing nature of her behavior. I had not thought about the possibility, however, of using the rearview mirror as an element in the photo until I saw myself in the mirror while looking through the viewfinder, but when I did I knew the mirror needed to be included in the photo as it helps illustrate the uneasy relationship between Key deer, people, handouts, and proximity to roads and the cars that threaten these endangered animals.

Equipment:

• Canon 5D
• Canon 17-40mm lens
• ISO 200, 1/80 sec., f10 with no compensation