Florida approves first black bear hunt in a decade

Washington Post

24-05-2025

OCALA, Fla. — Gail Zega recently stepped out to her carport on a quiet, moonless night and came face-to-face with a large black bear.
There were no warning signs or noises as it scavenged through the trash it had dragged to her home in central Florida's Ocala National Forest. She unknowingly walked right up to the bear she said was 'having a picnic in my carport.'
'He was right there,' Zega said. 'I could feel his fur and smell his bad, hot breath.'
The bear made a defensive move that experts call a 'bluff charge,' before they both backed away. The black bear soon left, and Zega later gave her neighbors straps they could use to lock down their garbage cans so they wouldn't attract more late-night visitors.
The encounter didn't faze Zega, who works with Bear Warriors United, a nonprofit that advocates protection of Florida black bears. Now, she is protesting a state plan to hold a 'a highly regulated' black bear hunt. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday approved a proposal that will allow the state to have its first bear hunt in a decade. (Black bears are the only wild bear species in the state.)
The commission approved the plan in a 4-1 vote. It gives preliminary approval for Florida to hold a three-week hunt during which 187 black bears could be 'harvested.'
The plan was approved weeks after what Florida officials said was the state's first confirmed fatal black bear attack, although the hunt proposal was made several months before the man's death.
On May 5, the Collier County Sheriff's Office in southwest Florida received a call from relatives reporting Robert Markel, 89, missing from his home. There were signs on his property in rural Jerome of 'recent disturbances that could have been caused by a bear,' according to the commission.
Markel's remains were found about 100 yards from his home. Officials said he and his dog had been killed by a 263-pound male black bear.
Until that attack, Florida officials say there were fewer than 50 reported injuries from black bear interactions in the past five decades. Male black bears in Florida are known to typically avoid humans. But the state says reports of black bear activity are up, with 2,000 complaints last year, compared with 1,000 in 2005.
The number of bears killed on Florida's highways also jumped last year, to 295 — more than double the number killed in 2005.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said his county, home to a large portion of the Ocala National Forest, has grown so fast in the past decade that bear sightings have become almost commonplace. The forest is home to one of the largest black bear populations in the state.
Woods, who supports the hunt, said bears have been seen near elementary schools and retirement communities.
'Two weeks ago, I personally came in contact with a bear in my backyard,' Woods said. 'Luckily for the bear, he decided to leave.'
But opponents of the plan say bears are not to blame for human overdevelopment. They also took issue with some of the rules around the hunt, which they consider too aggressive.
Most of the 168 speakers at the meeting opposed the hunt. An online survey conducted by the wildlife commission last week also found the plan to be unpopular. Of the more than 13,000 people who responded, 75 percent opposed the hunt and 23 percent supported it.
Hanging over the vote was the memory of a 2015 state hunt that had to be halted after 304 bears were killed within 48 hours, including cubs and nursing females. The quota that year was 320 bears.
'One of the things that we kept hearing from the public was that it was a slaughter, this was trophy hunting at its best or whatever,' Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto said. 'How are we going to reassure the public?'
With the exception of the 2015 event, Florida has not allowed bears to be hunted for more than 30 years. The Florida black bear was considered a threatened species from 1974 through 2012.
The black bear population has since recovered and officials say there are about 4,050 in the wild statewide.
'We now have more bears than at any time in the last 100 years,' the wildlife commission's website says.
Florida's black bear population has reached a 'sustainable' level, Morgan Richardson, director of hunting and game management for the commission, said at the meeting. 'Bears are a game species, it's a renewable resource, and there are plenty of bears to where we could harvest a certain number every year, and continue to have bears increase.'
Still, speakers at the meeting objected to the plan allowing hunters' dogs to chase bears into trees and for the animals to be killed directly over bait stations. Wildlife biologists defended the methods as necessary to help hunters get close enough to the bears to tell the difference between males, which can weigh up to 350 pounds on average, and females, which usually weigh no more than 180 pounds.
'We heard from many people today that they didn't like seeing lactating bears or seeing cubs harvested,' Richardson said. 'We believe this is one way of seeing much less of that.'
The plan for this year's hunt would allow people to self-report their kills — a change from the 2015 event during which hunters were required to bring the carcasses to check-in stations. Officials said hunters will be able to report the kills on their cellphones.
'That means no accountability,' said Susan Hargreaves, the founder of Animal Hero Kids, an animal rescue and education nonprofit based in Jupiter, Florida. 'People were at the check-in stations taking pictures in 2015 to show how bad it was, and now they want to hide it.'
Hargreaves brought to the meeting a blown-up photo from the 2015 hunt of a dead mother bear and her cub in the back of a pickup truck.
Dozens of hunters, dressed in blaze orange T-shirts, attended the meeting to support the plan. Some noted that most states allow bear hunting, including California.
'Bear is a game species. It's time for us to have some level of bear hunt,' said Travis Thompson, executive director at the All Florida conservation organization.
But others argue that Floridians just need to learn to coexist with bears. Guy Marwick has lived on the border of the Ocala National Forest for a half century, and he said black bears are a frequent — and welcome — sight in his yard.
'I'll have a mother bear and cubs come up around the porch, just looking like they're playing,' Marwick said. 'We need to educate people on how to live with bears. We don't need to hunt them.'