SOKD has been trusted by many Keys residents to assess sick and injured Key Deer.

Key deer need a new Jack Watson.

Every discussion of the history of Key Deer invariably mentions Mr. Jack Watson, Key Deer Refuge’s first manager, when it was created in 1957. Mr. Watson is widely credited with saving the deer from total extinction, and he oversaw the US Federal Refuge until he finally retired in 1974.  Key deer continued to be a very hot topic into the early through-mid 2000s, both for research and Refuge management. In recent years, however, Key deer have become an afterthought. And in the past few years, they have become an apparent social/political polarizing issue. Every attempt to re-establish field-aid and rehab facilities for the deer by my organization (SOKD) has not only been rebuffed by the USFWS but resulted in having me and my SOKD’s newly formed Key Deer Response Team volunteers threatened with arrest. HUH? Jack Watson is likely turning in his grave.

During the early 2000s, the USFWS maintained vigilant staff to respond to Key deer emergencies, but this attention to deer began declining after 2009. Presently, it’s not even clear how many Key deer exist. The last comprehensive survey (in which SOKD directly participated) was done in 2020, estimating a population of 700-750. Since then, the Refuge staff has shrunk to a handful of people, with no reports or scientific papers published through the Refuge for at least 7 years. SOKD’s ideas to collaborate had fallen on deaf ears. SOKD’s own peer-reviewed scientific paper highlighting Key deer’s increasing dependence on humans for drinking water sources, published in late 2024, is a research exception.

About 2 years ago, with no luck trying to establish a positive relationship with local USFWS staff, I approached the state agency that now most commonly has to react to Key deer field emergency calls – the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWCC). These days, to report a Key deer emergency, you have to call an FWC hotline, not the USFWS. That dispatch center calls field officers (in our case, FWC law enforcement officers), which may or may not result in a response. The FWCC officers generally have no training in dealing with Key deer and virtually no equipment to capture a deer other than an occasional dog-catcher noose. So, understandably, most responses end with a “ couldn’t capture the deer” report. A logical solution to the existing deer emergency response inefficiency would be to form a select, specially trained group of volunteers acting as FWC’s “Agents” to respond to Key deer issues and thus free their law enforcement officers of the deer-response duties. FWC quickly endorsed this concept and even issued me a Key deer rehab facility permit, which I constructed using donation funds. In April 2024, the Executive Director of USFWS-Florida “was excited to learn that FWC will be taking the lead to work with stakeholder groups in the Florida Keys to designate a care and rehabilitation facility for federally endangered Key deer.” That was the green light for FWCC to issue me a rehab permit, approve my enclosure, and request I form a “Key Deer Response Team.” (Wildlife rehab includes field capture and treatment with immediate release.) I trained 14 volunteers to take the calls for Key deer in distress and assist with field capture, so, problem solved, right?

Not quite. In late 2024, I removed an embedded plastic ring from a young Key deer’s leg, making it my first rehab success story. After posting this happy news on social media, I was contacted by a USFWS biologist from their Vero Beach office, who said that if I ever do that again, I will be arrested and fined. When I recently contacted FWC about this fed agency threat, I was finally told that FWC would not formally make me or our “Key Deer Response Team” FWC agent status endorsement because they don’t want political bad blood with the Feds (USFWS). So the present situation is a strange one: USFWS opposes/prohibits outside sources to respond to injured Key deer, yet does nothing on their own (with very few exceptions). Such assistance is listed in their Key Deer Conservation Plan, and they claim they are developing a program, but they have been claiming to be formulating a rehab plan since 2023.

On the other hand, I have a permit from FWC to rehab Key deer…but the USFWS will arrest me if I or the trained response team try to help a Key deer. So we, and the deer, are back to square zero.

The stalemate situation between the federal, state, and resident groups involved with Keys wildlife is illogical and very frustrating. We all have chosen to live together on a bunch of rocks…with a few very unique animals that we have nearly displaced and made extinct. The current situation is unacceptable. What, I ask on behalf of the Key deer, would it take to bring back the enthusiasm and pro-active attitude of the 2000s? And where is our new Jack Watson?