Big Pine Key could as easily be called Little Deer Key. After all, the roughly 10-square-mile island, 30 miles east of Key West in Florida is known for being home to North America’s smallest deer species, the Key deer, which live here and on several other surrounding islands.
For many visitors making their way through the Florida Keys from Miami to Key West, it’s enough to make a very quick detour off the Overseas Highway to check a Key deer–sighting off the list. Those travelers are missing out, though, because taking the time to get out of the car to wander trails and explore the unique flora and fauna of the deer’s habitat will leave you with a deeper appreciation of this unique dot on the map.
What are Key deer, and why are they so special?
Upon arriving on Big Pine Key, you’ll pick up all sorts of nods to these pint-size ungulates: fencing to keep the animals out of traffic, decreased speed limits, and the National Key Deer Refuge, which was founded in 1957 to protect the federally endangered subspecies of white-tailed deer, along with other unique local flora and fauna. “We have one whole stoplight on Big Pine Key,” says park ranger Katy Hosokawa. “That’s the turn you take to get into the refuge and explore the interior of the island.”
Hosokawa says there are somewhere between 600 and 800 Key deer occupying about 22 islands in the Lower Keys, with 70 percent of the population found on Big Pine Key and neighboring No Name Key. “They look a lot like the deer you see in other parts of the country, but a big Key deer, at its chest, is maybe 26 inches of height,” Hosokawa says. “But they still have antlers, they still go through rut, they still have fawning season. They’re doing all the same things, they’re just smaller.”
Big Pine Key makes for a hospitable deer habitat in part because the refuge is a veritable buffet for them: More than 150 different species of plants have been found in the stomachs of Key deer here. Unsurprisingly, the environment supports many other animals as well—hundreds of endemic and migratory species, including 21 that are federally listed, among them the Lower Keys marsh rabbit, the silver rice rat, and the Miami blue butterfly.
It’s not overly difficult to spot a Key deer—they often wander around parking lots and in backyards in Big Pine Key’s residential neighborhoods. Here, Hosokawa offers a few ways to maximize your chances of seeing one, while also detailing a few other ways to enjoy the island’s natural bounty.
Where to start your Key deer safari
The islands that make up the Florida Keys are remnants of ancient coral reefs. The soil is mostly limestone, and Big Pine Key is pocked with solution holes—what Hosokawa calls “potholes made by nature”—that can be as much as five feet deep. These holes are a magnet for deer. “They’re limestone that’s been worn away by plant and rain matter over long, long periods of time and are kind of like bowls,” Hosokawa says. “When it rains, they fill up with water, and it gives the deer a place to come and find fresh water to drink.”
If you’re seeking solution holes—and encounters with the animals that are drawn to them—a good place to look is along the park’s many firebreaks, which cut through the pine rock lands.
“Because this is a fire-dependent habitat, we do prescribed burns,” Hosokawa says. “It’s one of our management practices. But these prescribed burns also make excellent, rugged trails. I love to walk them looking for plants and deer.”
Changing plant life along these trails serves as a good indicator you’re approaching one of the holes. “The thirsty plants are the ones closest to solution holes—things like bracken ferns and cattails, which love fresh water,” says the ranger. “If you’re walking through the forest and you’re just seeing pines and small shrubs and then all of the sudden you see a patch of cattails, that’s a pretty good indicator you’re near a solution hole.”
From left: Blue Hole contains both fresh- and salt-water fish because of storm flooding; white herons are a constant resident of the Florida Keys and are especially prevalent during breeding season.
Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Get to know the deer’s home on a nature walk
To get better acquainted with the wonders of the local environment, Hosokawa recommends stopping by the refuge’s visitor center (at 30587 Overseas Highway), then taking hikes on two of her favorite interpretive walking paths.
The Mannillo and Watson nature trails are both located right off Key Deer Boulevard. The former is wheelchair accessible and travels only 800 feet out and back, ending at a viewing platform within a fresh-water wetland area where you may spot alligators, turtles, and wading birds. The latter, meanwhile, is longer (two-thirds of a mile out and back) and lined with interpretive signs that detail the refuge’s surprisingly diverse landscapes. “It actually takes you through three of our main habitats,” Hosokawa says. “You get to walk through a little pine rockland, a little bit of a wetland, and a little hardwood hammock, too. I love it so much.”
The varied terrain ensures a wide range of flora and fauna. Endemic plants include Florida Keys blackbead, locust berry, Key thatch palm, and Jamaica dogwood. The refuge is also a birder’s paradise. “You might see a bald eagle fly over,” the ranger says. “If you’re here during the spring bird migration, in April or May, you might see different warbler species, too.” In the fall, she adds, raptors migrate through by the thousands. “Peregrines are flying down to South America for the winter. We get lots of kestrels that come to winter here. You’ll see broad-winged hawks. If you’re really lucky, you might get to see a short-tailed hawk.”
The Blue Hole Observation Platform is on a trail that’s less than a quarter-mile long; it provides opportunities to see birds, turtles, and fish.
Photo by Rob O’Neal
Discover an oasis at a former quarry
One of the refuge’s biggest attractions, just a quarter mile down Key Deer Boulevard from the Mannillo and Watson Nature Trails, is the Blue Hole Observation Platform. A former quarry that provided stone to lay some of Big Pine Key’s original roads, Blue Hole is now home to an interesting range of species, in part because it contains both salt- and fresh-water creatures.
“The alligators love it because they love fresh water,” Hosokawa says. “We get lots of birds here. Sometimes deer come by too, since fresh water is such a commodity.” Black spiny-tailed iguanas often show up as well, to the delight of visitors, if not park rangers. (They’re considered an invasive species.) Blue Hole even provides a home for some salt-water fish, such as tarpon and needlefish, which arrived thanks to flooding during Hurricane Wilma in 2005 and Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Don’t feed the animals
Even with all the other attractions, the Key deer remains king here. It’s important to remember, however, that they’re wild animals and should be treated as such—for their own good. Hosokawa says that a good rule of thumb is that if you’re changing the behavior of an animal (say, by offering it food to entice it closer), then you’ve probably crossed a boundary.
“You don’t want to be so close that you could reach out and pet it,” she advises. “In general, the deer have learned really bad habits from others, but it’s our job as future visitors not to reinforce that behavior.” In short, look but don’t touch. And the best times for looking are dawn and dusk. “If it’s really hot outside for you,” Hosokawa says, “it’s going to be hot for them, too.”
Getting to Big Pine Key
From Miami International Airport, drive 131 miles south and then southeast (just under three hours) to reach Big Pine Key. Alternatively, fly into Key West International Airport and drive 29 miles (roughly 40 minutes) east through the island chain to arrive here.
Where to stay
The best lodging on Big Pine Key proper is Deer Run on the Atlantic, a four-room oceanfront eco-lodge that boasts the Florida Green Lodging Program‘s highest rating, four Palms. Guests here can make use of loaner bikes to go deer-watching.
Just six miles east of Big Pine Key, Bahia Honda State Park has rustic duplex cabins on stilts fronting the water. Two of them can accommodate six people, and one, with a wheelchair lift, sleeps four. There are 80 tent and RV camping sites here, too, with some of the most prime oceanfront real estate in the Florida Keys.
Nine miles west of Big Pine Key, on Little Torch Key, Parmer’s Resort has both standard hotel rooms and freestanding cottages right on the water. The property offers boat tours, snorkeling, and fishing trips from its on-site marina.
For a secluded stay nearby, the adults-only Little Palm Island is an all-inclusive Relais & Châteaux resort just offshore of Little Torch Key. You’ll arrive via a White Lotus–esque boat ride before checking into your thatched-roof bungalow and heading off for a spa treatment.
