Orlando area, Panhandle close after first day of bear hunt

Florida is holding its first bear hunt in more than two decades, despite opposition from animal rights campaigners.

“None of these numbers are worrying to us”, said Thomas Eason, a wildlife biologist nicknamed “Dr. Bear” who serves as director of FWC’s division of habitat and species conservation.

The bear a hunter takes may be either sex as long as it weighs a minimum of 100 pounds live weight and is not with any cubs.

The hunt was unexpectedly strong in the East Panhandle BMU, where 112 bears were taken. Reynolds denied a petition for a temporary injunction against the hunt, saying the FWC had a made a scientific basis for the hunt, but could have waited until a more recent bear population study was released. That’s why the numbers were much higher as of Sunday. A person named Ryan Fitzgerald posted a copy of a receipt on the FWC’s hunting Facebook page, HuntFlorida.

While officials capped the limit at 320 bears this season, hunters have until noon Monday to have their bear weighed at established bear check stations in the North and South bear management units, the statement said.

FWC logs thousands of complaints a year about nuisance bears, including some that have killed livestock and pets – and a few that mauled people.

At least four Florida residents have been injured in bear attacks in the past two years, mostly in the suburbs north of Orlando. But Wiley only closed the areas that had exceeded their quota.

Efforts to contact those organizations for comment Sunday were unsuccessful.

USA dentist Walter Palmer poses with the dead black bear he killed illegally in Wisconsin in September 2006.

Wildlife conservation groups have opposed the hunt. The last statewide bear population count occurred in 2002. FWC wants to control the population, citing several bear attacks in the states.

Collisions with vehicles account for about 200 bear deaths in Florida annually, plus many “conflict bears” have been removed after getting into trash, causing property damage, or menacing people.

Palmer, a retired land developer who has hunted bear and other animals in his home state of Alaska since boyhood, said he has no problem with Florida’s hunt. But commissioners voted to proceed anyway, despite overwhelming public opposition.

The hunt wasn’t free of violations. Another hunter in the region is being investigated for possible baiting, the agency said. The first bear brought to the Rock Springs Run Wildlife Management Area check-in station for hunters Saturday morning had been lactating. “They’re not about conservation, this commission is about killing, not about conservation”, said Sanders. Three WMAs in this BMU will have bear hunting this year.