If you've ever made the long journey from Miami to Key West, you've spotted the tiny Key deer along the side of the road. A subspecies of the white-tailed deer, it is the smallest North American deer. Now, the federal government wants is considering removing the deer from the Endangered Species List.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims there are no more significant threats to the deer, and has set a public forum for August 22nd in the Keys to discuss their removal from the list.
"The population may have increased but the Key deer is still globally in peril," according to Alicia Putney, the former president of Key Deer Protection Alliance.
Less than a thousand Key deer currently reside in the Lower Keys, and they've survived both a screwworm outbreak in 2016 and Hurricane Irma in 2017.