No Bear Hunt in Florida This Year, Officials Say

by Gray Rohrer / Orlando Sentinel

TALLAHASSEE – There will not be a state-sanctioned bear hunt this year because Florida Fish & Wildlife commissioners voted Wednesday night to delay a decision on another hunt until 2017.

“I’m leaning toward a pause,” said FWC chair Brian Yablonski. “I don’t think a pause means hunting goes away forever.”

The 4-3 vote came after more than eight hours of public testimony at meeting in the Panhandle town of Eastpoint, with most speakers opposed to a second bear hunt in as many years.

Opponents of the hunt said it isn’t necessary and although numbers are increasing the state, bears are still an imperiled species in Florida. Efforts to reduce encounters with humans should be limited to educating the public and taking better care of garbage, a temptation for roaming bears, they said.

“The problem in Florida is not an excess of bears but an excess of trash,” said Kate MacFall, Florida state director of the Humane Society.

State biologists had recommended a 2016 hunt of up to 12 days with fewer licenses issued, fewer areas available to hunt and increased reporting requirements. But that idea was voted down 4-3 by the commission.

The move to go ahead with a second hunt renewed a clash between hunters in favor of a bear hunt and environmental groups opposed. Animal rights groups and environmental groups have held protests throughout the state decrying the move.

State estimates put Florida’s bear population at 4,350, a 60 percent increase since 2002. In Central Florida, there are 1,230, a 19 percent jump from 2002.

Interactions with humans are becoming more frequent as well. There were 243 bears killed by vehicles in 2015, a seven-fold increase from 1990. FWC’s volume for bear-related nuisance calls jumped from 4,092 in 2011 to 6,094 last year.

Some of those resulted in harm to humans. Sherri Hutchins, whose daughter survived a bear attack near Eastpoint in 2014, spoke in favor of the hunt.

“They’re a nuisance in our neighborhoods, they tear up our property, they kill our animals, and now they’re attacking us,” Hutchins said.

Other anti-hunt speakers insisted bears aren’t a nuisance and more studies and examinations of bear population estimates are needed.

“They don’t bother us in our community because we are not allowed to have our trash out until the morning before pick-up,” said DeBary resident Susan Conyac.

State biologists said the hunt is just one part of the state’s approach to managing bears and reducing interactions with humans.

FWC is providing grants to communities to help provide bear-resistant trash cans, banning harvesting palmetto berries — a favored snack for bears — on state lands and increasing warnings for homeowners who fail to secure garbage cans, another ursine temptation.

“A lot of people seem to think we’re still in the 1970s, and we have an endangered bear species,” said Thomas Eason, director of FWC’s division of habitat and species conservation.

Black bears were placed on Florida’s protected species list in 1974, and hunting bears was banned 20 years later. In 2011 FWC commissioners removed bears from the list but the ban on hunting remained in place until last year.

In last year’s hunt the FWC issued 3,778 permits and scheduled a weeklong hunt that was stopped after two days when hunters killed 304 bears, nearing the set limit of 321 bears.

The enthusiasm among hunters to allow for another short bear season after a 21-year hiatus wasn’t quenched by last year’s hunt.

“I’ve never killed a bear in my life, but I would love to,” said hunter Henry Hamlin.

grohrer@orlandosentinel.com or (850) 222-5564