More and more bears have been seen in urban areas across our state over the past several years. In fact, over six thousand nuisance bear calls come into the FWC offices each year. Combine that with over three hundred bear car collisions this year alone, which has the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission considering a black bear hunt.
Now, regulated bear hunting seasons began in 1930 here in Florida and ran each year until 1993. After a huge upswing in the bear population, the Florida Wildlife Commission allowed a special opportunity season in 2015, but now, it has been nearly 10 years since Florida saw a bear hunt. But, our FWC officials are now considering a hunt for 2025. FWC staff recently updated commissioners on their bear management plan and objectives for the future, including population control via limited hunting, habitat, human-bear conflicts and education/outreach.
While FWC commissioners didn’t say yes to a bear hunt, they didn’t say no either. The final determination is supposed to take place during one of the commission’s public forums. We can only hope science overcomes emotion; you see, there are an awful lot of people who don’t want the bears to be hunted. Not even with strict harvest limitations.
A bear sighting in on Ava Langley’s property near Silver Lake is common. Her property, surrounded by trees, woods, and water, is an ideal bear habitat. She said she’s been seeing them outside her home and in her community near Croom for the last few years.
“We love the wildlife here, and the bears are great, but they will tear up your bird feeders and one broke into our chicken pen, but didn’t harm any chickens. Just stole all of their food.”
Lots of hunters have reported seeing bears on trail cameras in places near have never appeared before. The FWC said the mere presence of a black bear doesn’t cause a problem in itself. However, FWC said urban sprawl eating up what was traditionally remote areas has bears and humans encountering each other more often.
Bill George, one of the smartest men I know and lends his input to the FWC on wildlife biology and management science, said when a potential bear hunt is discussed, people not involved in true conservation react negatively.
“We do not want to wipe out all the bears in Florida,” he told me explained. “We want to create a healthy population as with any other species of big game animals, there really should be a program in place to maintain the animals from overpopulating what lands we have left.”
The Central Florida region, which is from the Ocala National Forest to the Chassahowitzka area, has the largest population of bears in the state, with an estimate of more than 1,600.
They could have handled the 2015 hunt better and kept an annual season. However, there was no set number of bear permits sold. In fact, at $100.00 per permit, the commission sold nearly four thousand permits while expecting to cull three hundred bears. The quota was reached on the first day, and the week-long hunt ended in just two days.
If a 2025 hunt is allowed, a set number of permits would be issued equal to the number of bears intended to be hunted. This is similar to how permits are issued for all other game animals, from public land deer management to alligators. Our FWC says there were over 3,200 bears in Florida in 2015. Currently, there are just over 4,000 black bears in Florida.
Time will tell, I suppose. I’m definitely going to stay on top of the issue, rooting for a sound and scientific approach to managing our bear. So, as always, if anybody would like to offer their own, I put on bear management or other hunting opportunities; give me a shout at [email protected]. God Bless, and good hunting!
Toby Benoit is a best selling novelist and professional outdoors-man with thirty-five years of experience guiding and outfitting for big game all across America. Toby is a renowned archer and turkey hunting expert who manufactures custom game calls and is a regular judge at NWTF sanctioned turkey calling events across the Southeast.
[Credit: Jimmy Jones]
