Tuesday, February 6, 2024

AN OLD TRIP TO SEE THE KEY DEER - FLORIDA KEYS

My post today is another transfer from my old blog.  We are going back to January 2014.

These sweet looking deer are the endangered Key Deer.  They can be found in Pine Key, in the Florida Keys, and are tiny compared to the White-tailed Deer.  


At first you feel like you are looking at a youngster.  However, an adult's shoulder height is only between 24 to 32 inches. A doe can weigh 45 to 65 lbs. and a buck 55 to 80 lbs.  At birth fawns only weigh between 2 to 4 lbs.


The wire fencing shown is surrounding someone's yard.  This little one was on the edge of the road, but I am not as close as it looks as I am using my camera with a zoom lens.  


Next is the same photo as above.  I used it for a blog post, and you can find it at this link. I repeat what I have shared here, but there is also more at other links. I removed the chain link fence using Paint Shop Pro. I believe there are even easier functions now, which I am only just discovering.  For instance, moving the background entirely by using a feature on google.com.  That way you can put the subject on any background you choose.


We were in a quiet neighborhood with not a lot of heavy traffic, the roads were narrow and the rare car we came across drove very slowly. 


The miniature Key Deer are a subspecies of the White-tailed Deer.  No one really knows the origins of the deer in the Keys, but it is believed that they migrated from the mainland thousands of years ago, across a long land bridge.  


As the Wisconsin Glacier melted, the sea rose dividing the land bridge into small islands, now known as the Florida Keys.


The earliest known written reference to Key Deer comes from the writings of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, a Spanish sailor shipwrecked in the Florida Keys and captured by Native Americans in the 1550's.  If you want to find out more about him click on this link.  He had an interesting life.  This is another reason I love blogging, on researching a post I learn so much more.


And if you want to learn more about the Key Deer, you can click here.


Thanks for looking and enjoy your day!



35 comments:

  1. How exciting to see something so rare! I have seen these on T.V. They are kind of a mystery. And so cute and sweet. I hope measures are taken to protect them.

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    1. They are protected which is heartening. Thank Ginny :)

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  2. Their eyelashes are SO long! I've been there, but didn't see any deer. Linda in Kansas

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  3. The deers are so adorable. I see a lot of them every time I am in Nara Japan.

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    1. I have seen photos and videos of them. They are beautiful animals :)

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  4. You were so fortunate to see these little darlings, Denise. Thank you for sharing them here again. You always are so creative with your photos. How neat to be able to remove backgrounds. I must take a look at that feature. Happy Tuesday, my friend!

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    1. I truly was Martha Ellen and you are very welcome. So glad you enjoyed the rerun :) At the time, my paint shop pro was the easiest way to remove the background and it was time consuming and a bit laborious truth be told. Since then, Google came up with a pretty neat feature. You just have to open up any of your photos, press on the image you want to save, and it should separate it from the background. It will turn it into a png file and a pop-up appears asking you what you want to do with it. I usually send it to my email and save it. You can add it onto any photo in paint shop pro (I have never investigated any other apps for this maneuver. There may be an easier way out there). On your photo that you've separated, when it is still on your phone, a glowing line will appear around your subject, moving around it to show you the part you will save. I hope I have explained this correctly. It takes a bit of practice, but I really enjoy using google, and then I open it up in my paint shop pro which is still my favorite program.

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  5. Hello Denise,
    The Key deer are so cute, wonderful collection of photos. Take care, have a great day and happy new week!

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    1. Hello Eileen, they are aren't they, so cute. Thank you and I wish you the same :)

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  6. Such winsome creatures! These smaller deer have been survivors for quite some time so I hope they will continue to do so with human help. :)

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  7. I first heard about the dear in one of my books, that was set in the keys and the book had the people going to pine key to see the deer and told a lot about them, much like what you have here. i would love to see Pine key and the tiny deer. all of our deer in FL are small, not this small but much smaller than other deer.

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    1. I hope I will get to see them again. They certainly are survivors and long may they be so :) Thanks Sandra!

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  8. Beautiful deer perfect photos. Thanks for the post. I recently wrote for my blog a fairy tale starring a fawn and a little girl.

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    1. You are very welcome Katerina :) Thank you, I will look forward to reading your story.

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  9. These are wonderful shots -- and the deer photos are lovely. What sweet faces they have.

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    1. Thank you Jeanie, they had incredibly sweet faces :)

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  10. Sweet deer! There are small deer on Assateague Island, but they were introduced from Asia.

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    1. I never knew that Linda, thanks for the share. I would like to go back to Assateague Island one day.

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  11. We occasionally see deer around here, they are so cute.

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    1. They are but I haven't seen deer in our immediate area in a long time. Even on our country drives they seem to be scarcer. However, my husband came home and told me he had spotted a family of them on his way back home :) Not near here though.

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  12. How cute they are. Those eyes really grab you.

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  13. Such a sweet face! Happy Tuesday to you:)

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  14. The deer are such beautiful animals, lovely photographs.

    All the best Jan

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    1. Couldn't agree with you more and thank you :) All the best to you too :)

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  15. Your cute Wed Feb 7 post doesn't enable comments

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    1. I was feeling under the weather so I disabled the comments on a couple of posts that week. All better now and trying hard to catch up :)

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  16. That's interesting, Linda mentioned the ones on Assateague in a comment above. I really do need to get back there.

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