Florida Deer: An estimated 570,000 deer in 2021, down from about 650,000 deer in 2017. Hunting data indicates significant declines in 2018 and 2020 with an increase in 2021. An estimated population of 700,000 in 2014 and exceeding 700,000 in 2006. The deer hunt peaked in 2008-09, a significant population decline since 2014. An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 deer in 1951.
Florida Deer News
Gross Pathology and Epidemiological Features of Mule Deerpox Virus Infections in Farmed White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Florid - Veterinary Microbiology, 2025
... Mule deerpox virus (DPV) is a member of the Poxviridae family that affects various deer species, causing crustaceous skin lesions and potentially lethal infections ... Focusing on 145 animals with DPV-like lesions ... 49 out of 145 deer (33.8%, 95% CI: 25.7%-40.9%) tested positive for DPV. Mule deerpox virus was identified in 20 of the 37 counties and 8 of the 10 deer management units (DMUs) ... The findings emphasize the need for enhanced disease surveillance ...
Warning Signs of Screwworm Infection in Animals May 15, 2025 Wisconsin Ag Connection
... The U.S. successfully eradicated screwworms in 1966. However, a resurgence occurred in 2016 among Key deer in the Florida Keys. That outbreak ended in early 2017 after a sterile fly release program eliminated the pest from the region...
Florida's first dedicated wildlife crossing overpass looks to preserve state's 'wonderful wild places' April 25, 2025 WPTV
... an $18 million wildlife crossing over I-4 about a mile east of State Road 33 ... "There's deer on the north side, and we've had bobcats and coyotes in the area, so we think within no time wildlife will start utilizing the crossing."...
Scientists raise alarm over concerning shift pushing species to domestication March 22, 2025 Florida, The Cool Down
...the Key deer, is a beloved and endangered Florida native ... Researchers have found that only the most isolated populations of Key deer rely on natural water sources, while the rest are drinking water provided by humans ... The study shared by the Journal for Nature Conservation identified many seasonal watering holes that dry up for some or even most of the year. Others become too salty ...
FWC approves new rule changes to increase antlerless deer harvest opportunities February 26, 2025 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
... In Zones B and C, hunters will be able to harvest antlerless deer during the archery, crossbow and muzzleloading gun seasons... In Zone D, antlerless deer will be allowed to be taken during the entirety of the deer season. The new rules also increase the bag limit for antlerless deer in DMU D2 to three as part of the statewide annual bag limit of five..,
FWC urges residents to report road-killed deer to CWD hotline February 13, 2025 Florida, Citrus County Chronicle
... The FWC urges anyone who sees a sick, abnormally thin, or road-killed deer to report its location by calling the CWD hotline at 866-CWD-WATCH (866-293-9282)... first detected in Florida in June 2023 ...
Investigators search for suspects accused of illegally killing nine deer in Hendry County January 24, 2025 Florida, NBC
... two suspects accused of illegally killing approximately nine deer. Investigators said they have exhausted all available leads and are now seeking the public's help in identifying the suspects ...
Drinking water availability patterns amplify domestication of Florida Key deer - Journal for Nature Conservation, 2024
... Rain and fresh water lens-filled depressions provide natural drinking water sources for Key deer. Historically, many natural fresh water sources have been destroyed by human development. Lack of natural drinking water sources is accelerating domestication of the Key deer...
Valerie Preziosi: Steward of Endangered Key Deer November 27, 2024 The Florida Keys & Key West
... Valerie Preziosi, founder and president of the nonprofit Save Our Key Deer Inc., works to save the indigenous and federally protected herd of about 800 small Key deer from human-provoked tragedies... she’s opening a new state-authorized Key deer rehabilitation facility on Big Pine Key....
Florida's Key Deer at Risk From Rising Sea Levels November 7, 2024 Newsweek on MSN
... the population dropped to around 50 from hunting and poaching... peaking at roughly 1,000 deer in the mid-2010s, but then a deadly parasite and Hurricane Irma caused the population to take a big hit. There are currently roughly 800 deer on the Florida Keys...,
Python found eating deer shows they’re going after bigger prey in Florida, study says October 24, 2024 Florida, Charlotte Observer on MSN
... 15-foot Burmese python ... was 115 pounds and the deer was 77 pounds ... according to the newly released study “Big Pythons, Big Gape and Big Prey.” ... They are interested in our native wildlife, which has no perspective on this giant snake being a threat..,
Natural resources plan first of its kind October 1, 2024 Florida, Key West Citizen
... An example of an area that might benefit is the National Key Deer Refuge, which requires a freshwater lens atop its watering holes — as naturally occurred in former times — so that the federally endangered Key deer have freshwater to drink...
Florida's Endangered Key Deer – Is Time Running Out to Save Them? August 19, 2024 The Good Men Project
... According to the Florida Fish Wildlife Commission (FWC) “As of February 2024, the Key deer population was estimated to be between 700 and 800 deer, with the largest concentrations on Big Pine Key and No Name Key. This population is considered stable, but the Key deer is still listed as a federally endangered species.” ... about 100 deer die every year from car strikes..,
Current Estimates of Key Deer Numbers on Sugarloaf and Cudjoe Keys - Southeastern Naturalist, 2024
... The Lincoln–Petersen method estimated 36 Key Deer on Sugarloaf Key and 74 Key Deer on Cudjoe Key. These estimates indicate the translocation thus far has been effective, but there is a need to monitor the efficacy of translocations over time to ensure the long-term viability of the species...
FWC seeks meat processors and taxidermists to join fight against CWD June 10, 2024 Florida, FWC News
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is seeking meat processors and taxidermists from select counties to help test for chronic wasting disease. Partners in this program play a critical role in helping the FWC determine how many CWD-positive deer are in Florida and how much the disease has spread throughout the state...
Another donor ponies up big for hunting and fishing rights ballot initaitve May 8, 2024 Florida Politics
... “We are thrilled to announce a contribution of $250,000 to the ‘Yes on 2!’ Committee in Florida, advocating for the passage of the constitutional right to fish and hunt amendment,” said Luke Hilgemann, CEO of T. Roosevelt Action and national chair of Yes on 2...
Woman's 'Highly Unusual' Pneumonia Caused by Parasite-Tainted Deer Meat May 3, 2024 Florida, Yahoo
... detailed this week in the New England Journal of Medicine ... the 32-year-old Florida resident visited an emergency room ... the woman had recently prepared a deer carcass collected from her boyfriend’s hunting trip in Alabama. The woman cooked, served, and ate the venison ... tests came back positive for T. gondii ... her blood was chock full of the parasite ...
Ormond Beach deer injured after getting plastic piece stuck in its hoof
April 27, 2024 Florida, FOX 35 Orlando
... FWC ... said they are not going to intervene at this time because it could do more harm than good to trap and tranquilize the young deer...
Climate change threatens habitat of Key Deer, other native species April 22, 2024 Florida, CBS News
... habitat continues to shrink as seas rise and transition to a saltwater habitat. This means less food and water for the deer. It's a problem that those in the Keys are facing along with the deer themselves...
FWC issues executive order with new CWD regulations for 2024-25 deer season April 17, 2024 Florida Fish and Wildlife News
... the FWC issued a new executive order outlining regulations designed to increase sampling and slow the spread of chronic wasting disease in Florida deer. Existing regulations pertaining to the establishment of the CWD Management Zone, prohibition of rehabilitating or releasing injured or orphaned deer, feeding restrictions, and prohibition of exporting high-risk parts remain in effect...
Florida will continue to monitor a deer disease even after no detection this year April 12, 2024 WMNF
... Wildlife officials have not found any other deer infected with fatal chronic wasting disease after one tested positive last year in Northwest Florida... more than 1,300 samples taken statewide since June...,
Key deer fawning season has started April 10, 2024 Florida, Key West Citizen
... While late April/early May has typically been the time when Key deer start giving birth to fawns, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuges manager staff in the Keys have already seen the first fawn of the season ...
Key Deer Awareness Day: A story of vulnerability and resilience March 11, 2024 Florida, earth on MSN
... This particular date was selected to commemorate the moment in 1967 when Key deer were officially recognized as being endangered... these deer migrated to the Florida Keys from the mainland ... between 6,000 and 12,000 years ago the melting of the Wisconsin Glacier abruptly raised sea levels... transformed a once-unified peninsula into a series of isolated islands ...
Fatal Chronic Wasting Disease In Florida Deer, Limited To One Case February 22, 2024 Florida, Tampa Free Press on MSN
... a deer killed in June in Holmes County tested positive ... from 1,000 tests from this past season and before, we still only have one positive (chronic wasting disease) case ..,
Image of slain deer decked out in Christmas lights sparks state investigation January 19, 2024 Florida, Yahoo
... A deer with Christmas lights caught up in its antlers was killed shortly after a resident posted a picture of the animal prancing around a northern Leon County neighborhood ... proudly holding up the head of the slain deer ...
PHO Viadanna, A Surphlis, AC Cheng, CE Dixon… - Virus Genes, 2024
,,, This report documents the clinical findings, ancillary diagnostics, and genomic characterization of a novel reassortant bluetongue virus serotype 2 (BTV-2) strain isolated from a dead Florida farmed WTD in 2022. Our analyses support that this BTV-2 strain likely stemmed from the acquisition of genome segments from co-circulating BTV strains in Florida and Louisiana...
The One With A Deer Crossing January 6, 2024 Florida, The Trek
... Locals take great pride in their Key Deer population. One way of showing this, busy intersections show the number of deer killed by automobiles in the past and current year...
Local hunters want to keep rights after Chronic Wasting Disease arrives in Florida January 4, 2024 Florida, Panama City WJHG-TV on MSN.com
... Hunters say they are concerned about more regulations and restrictions that might come if a deer they shoot comes back positive for CWD. “Hunters don’t want to participate because they don’t want FWC [getting] into their business,” said Watford..,
Central Florida man accused of intentionally running over deer for TikTok video December 29, 2023 Florida, YAHOO!News
... charged with five counts of animal cruelty for driving his truck at the deer with the intent of striking them with it, and one count of animal cruelty for the deer deputies say he did hit...
FWC Changes Policy in Response to Outrage Over Killing of Deer December 8, 2023 Florida, FlaglerLive
... Palm Coast residents indignant at the euthanizing of a domesticated deer by throat-slitting in early October addressed the Dec. 5 meeting of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and got what appeared to be an immediate response: FWC ... has changed its euthanizing policy to prevent similar outcomes in future...
Mandatory deer check station weekend December 9-10 in Holmes, Jackson and Washington counties December 7, 2023 Florida, FWC News
... all deer harvested in Holmes, Jackson and Washington counties must be checked at a staffed FWC check station. Following confirmation of a positive test in June 2023 for CWD in a white-tailed deer in Holmes County, the FWC issued new executive orders outlining regulations designed to increase sampling and slow the spread of CWD in Florida deer...
A tiny deer and rising seas: How far should people go to save an endangered species? November 12, 2023 Florida, Jefferson Public Radio
... Open pine forest with dense underbrush, the deer's preferred habitat, only exists where saltwater can't reach. Between development and sea-level rise, pine rockland has been reduced to only about 2% of the deer's historic range in South Florida... "If you move the Key deer to a series of zoos like people have done with pandas and other endangered species, you can do that and keep them going, but at what cost and to what end?" ...
Florida Deer Archive: Population and Management, Deer in the News, Disease, Suburban Management
Florida Data: For 2025, FWC approved increased antlerless hunting. Numbers from the deer hunt have been on a general decline since 2008, down about 62 percent by 2019. Florida doesn't provide deer population estimates. For 2015 to 2021 populations were estimated from the deer hunt data using the buck kill and a estimate of 700,000 deer in 2014 from the University of Florida Extension. A 2021 article reporting the Florida 2020 deer population at 700,000 is quoting this source which actually refers to the 2014 population.
As summarized in the table below, about 570,000 in 2021, up from about 531,000 deer in 2019, down from about 650,000 in 2017.
Comments from the state indicate an approximately steady population through 2018 with lower populations in thee Big Bend region, south Florida, and Zone A. The decline in the deer harvest is attributed somewhat to fewer hunters, but the number of hunters increased from 98,000 in 2017 to 107,000 in 2021, an increase of about 9 percent. In 2020, the pandemic year, there were an estimated 123,492 hunters.
A 2024 study finds that pythons have become a significant predator of deer in Florida. Reports indicate a 94 percent reduction in the white-tailed deer in the Everglades due to Burmese pythons in 2018. In 2016 emergency pumping in the Everglades to prevent deer from drowning or starving.
In 2015 Florida biologist instituted antler point restrictions in an effort to increase the deer population over the next five years. Good rainfall that year benefited deer.
A research paper published in 2006 reports the "population estimates exceed 700,000 deer statewide." The deer harvest peaked in 2008-09 at almost 180,000 up from about 60,000 in 1998-99. Some antlerless deer restrictions for areas A1, A2, and A3 for 2015 were designed to grow the herd.
Approximately 137,000 deer hunters in the state taking about 20 percent of the herd each year. The deer harvest fell by 45 percent from 2010 to 2017. A study of deer populations in 2009 including deer from the northwest and southwest regions shows a balanced buck to doe ratio of close to 50:50 with fawning rates of 41% singles, 57% twins, 2% triplets.
In 2020, there were over 400 registered deer farms in the state. A beloved buck in Mayport with its own Facebook account for two years died when its antlers were tangled in a barb-wire fence in 2016.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) The first confirmed positive was reported in June, 2023, a road-killed 4.5-year-old female white-tailed deer in Holmes County sampled during routine surveillance activities tested positive for chronic wasting disease. In March, 2023, a deer in North Escambia was suspected of having CWD. The state had tested nearly 1700 deer since 2002. Testing continues in 2014.
History
Deer were numerous in the Florida Panhandle based on reports from the late 1600's, but commercial hunting for deer hides reduced the herd to about 20,000 by the 1700s. In 1828 the first hunting regulations were enacted to protect the herd, a ban on fire hunting west of the Suwanee River. Development in Florida opened up much of the state beginning in the late 1800's.
Over hunting and a deer removal campaign to eradicate the cattle-fever tick in the 1930s and 40s decimated the population, back to the historic low population of about 20,000. The legislature authorized participation in the Federal Aid to Wildlife program in 1941, beginning an era of deer conservation. By 1951, the deer herd had grown to around 45,000 to 50,000. By 1985, the annual deer harvest rose to over 100,000 for the first time, marking the beginning of the modern era of deer management. See FWC Deer Management Plan. The deer population was estimated at 750,000 in 1990.
Three subspecies of deer in Florida: coastal whitetail in the Panhandle, Florida whitetail throughout the peninsula, and a small population of protected Key deer in Big Pine Key.
Key Deer migrated from the mainland during the last Ice Age when sea levels were lower. Key deer were spread throught the Florida Keys when the first Europeans arrived in the 1500s. In 1939 a bill was signed to protect them, but there were only 25 to 50 Key deer were left by 1950 after hunting. In 1953 a plan with agreed upon to protect key deer. Less than 50 in 1967 when they were listed under the Endangered Species Act. About 250 in the early 1980s, estimated at about 600 in 2011 through 2014 after 30 years of protection. Population estimates rose to 900 to 1,000, but a screw worm out beak in 2016 and hurricane Irma in 2018 brought the population down with estimates in 2019 of about 1,000 and in 2020 of 573 to 800. In 2019 there were discussions of removing key deer from the endangered species list, although their future is uncertain given sea rise.Less than 1,000 in 2021. A 2022 research paper put the total at 748. This estimate was updated in 2024 by FWC to between 700 and 800 deer.
More history and Florida deer information from the 2008 management plan.
Florida Deer Population Estimates: 33,000 in 1940, 300,000 in 1969.
Florida Panther population estimated in February, 2017, of 120 to 230 adult and subadults. The population in 2016 estimated at 100 to 180, 15 nearly 180 in 2015, at 2014 estimate from 120 to 180, up from 30 in 1995, the start of a restoration program. Around the year 1900, nearly 1300 panthers.
Bear population in 2016 estimated at 4,350 adults, up from 300 to 500 in the 1970's.
Pythons, not native to Florida, are found to be eating deer in the Everglades in 2016. An estimated population of 100,000 in 2017.
Report poaching: Wildlife Alert Line at 1-888-404-FWCC
Other useful links:
- Florida Department of Environmental Protection
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC)
- Deer Management in North Florida
- History of Deer Management in Florida
- Modeling spatial use patterns of white-tailed deer in the Florida Everglades (2000)
