Welcome to the World

Photograph by Colleen Fuller

I live in Big Pine Key, the home of the endangered Key deer, and I've been photographing the Key deer since 2015. I had never seen a Key deer being born, and this year on April 12, 2026, my dream finally came true. I'd been watching the does in the area to follow them as they started showing signs of their pregnancies, and one evening just before sundown in April, I witnessed the birth of this TINY Key deer fawn. Key deer fawns are a mere 2-4 pounds at birth, the size of a cat! The doe went out behind my friend's home way out close to the mangroves and using my Nikon Z9 and Z180-600mm lens, I was able to stay back far enough from the mom and her newborn so I didn't disturb them during this precious moment. There was a tiny window between the tall grass and I was VERY lucky to get to witness this very rare and not often seen miracle of this precious birth. I was even able to capture a very short video of the fawn coming out of momma and into the world. Welcome to the world, precious baby! This is most definitely a story worth sharing, and I'll remember this once-in-a-lifetime moment for the rest of my life. I work closely with the Key deer Research & Response Program as a volunteer to help the Key deer with entanglements and other issues, and I asked people on the team if they had ever seen anything like this before. Not even the Park Ranger or the biologist had ever witnessed the birth of a Key deer fawn.