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The landing in the Florida Keys of Hurricanes Georges (Category 2) in 1998 and Irene (Category 1) in 1999, in combination with an ongoing radiotelemetry study of Florida Key deer (Odocoileus virginanus clavium), offered a unique opportunity to evaluate the impacts of natural disturbances on Key deer. We relocated 53 deer (female, n = 29; male, n = 24) during Hurricane Georges and 45 deer (female, n = 27; male, n = 18) during Hurricane Irene. One adult male drowned due to Hurricane Georges ( 15 ppt). In some cases, water-hole suitability did not improve until several weeks or months later. Our study suggests that mild to moderate hurricanes (Category 1-2) have little direct impact on the survival of Key deer; however, stronger storms (>Category 3) might have a greater impact due to stronger winds and greater storm surges (>3.5 m).

Increases in motor vehicle traffic, habitat loss, and human-deer interactions due to urban development threaten the recovery and management of Florida Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium). To evaluate these threats, we estimated current survival rates and compared them to historic estimates, evaluated the causes of mortality from 1966 to 2000, and determined life expectancy of deer from marked animals. We radiomarked Florida Key deer as part of 2 separate field studies (1968-1972, 1998-2000), in addition to collecting mortality data and survey estimates (1966-2000). We analyzed survival data from 314 (157 male, 157 female) radiomarked deer using a known-fate model framework in program MARK. We considered a suite of a priori models based on the biology and current knowledge of Florida Key deer, and ranked them using Akaike's Information Criterion ($text{AIC}_{c}$) model selection. Important factors explaining deer survival were sex and geographical location. Model-averaged annual male survival (0.412-0.842) was lower than female survival (0.695-0.888). Marked female deer (n = 35) lived an average of 6.5 years (maximum 19 years), while marked male deer (n = 43) lived an average of 2.9 years (maximum 12 years). Deer survival also increased as deer moved away from U.S. Highway 1 (US 1). Deer-motor vehicle collisions accounted for >50% of total deer mortality, half of which occurred on US 1. Annual deer mortality since 1972 has increased and is attributed to an increase in the deer population size (1972-2000, 240%). We recommend finding methods to reduce deer-motor vehicle collisions because of human safety concerns. As efforts to reduce deer-motor vehicle collisions continue, biologists need to address high deer densities in management of this locally abundant but endangered deer population.

Conflict regarding the conservation and preservation of natural resources is among the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Given that management of natural resources increasingly depends on securing cooperation of culturally diverse groups of people, it is important to understand how to secure that cooperation. Endangered species management on private lands both typifies and magnifies the environmental conflicts encountered by natural resource policy makers and managers. Using an ethnographic approach, we analyzed the conflict surrounding management of the endangered Florida Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium) to explore how conflict and moral culture apply to natural resource policy formation and implementation. We found disputants on Big Pine Key divided into 2 moral cultures-1 grounded in stewardship and the other in private property rights. These moral cultures augmented the conflict by perpetuating divergent ethical perspectives and aspirations. The conflict then escalated through de-individualization, dehumanization, and demonization of those informed by the opposing moral culture. Finally, as typically occurs with serious conflicts, incompatible frames of reference created by the cultural divide not only prevented rapid de-escalation but promoted conflict-reinforcing mechanisms such as selective perception and judgment, moral exclusion, and rationalization, which led to communication breakdown and autistic hostility. Temporary solutions to superficial problems that were maladapted to conflicts involving moral culture did not ameliorate conditions and often exacerbated them. In emotionally charged decision-making venues, wildlife managers should take a proactive approach designed to encourage collaborative development of common ground among disputants. When conflicts reach a highly escalated state, as many inevitably will, their resolution will require meeting appropriate pre-negotiation conditions, then applying strategies that respond to both the level of escalation and the moral cultures involved in the particular conflict.