◆ Learn about bears

and Florida panthers in their natural habitat today at the Florida Wildlife Festival.

Black bears and nature tours are the headliners today at the Florida Wildlife Festival in Umatilla.

“This is an opportunity for people to come to the edge of the forest and take a deep breath,” said Susan Martin, executive director of the Umatilla Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the annual event. “Leave the [computer] screen behind.”

The festival, formerly known as the Florida Black Bear Festival, still features exhibits on the state’s largest native land animal but it offers much more. And it’s all free. Programs begin at 9 a.m. at Cadwell Park, 4 Cassady St., Umatilla, about an hour’s drive north of Orlando.

The festival offers guided hikes, a paddling excursion on Alexander Spring Run, and a guided trail ride on horses.

For more details about tours, check out the festival’s website: floridawildlifefestival.org.

One of the state’s top black bear experts, Mike Orlando of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, will lead an afternoon discussion about the species, which is plentiful in the region and featured in a new exhibit at the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens.

“You can learn about Florida wildlife in natural settings during the festival tours,” he said. “You can discover what a bear eats, how a Florida panther moves though the woods.”

The festival, which started 18 years ago with the primary goal of teaching residents how to live safely in Florida’s “bear country,” also features children’s activities, including an arts and crafts area where kids are encouraged to “Come Be a Bear.”

This year’s event also includes a field trip to the remote cabin retreat of Archie Carr Jr., a pioneering conservationist best known for his work with sea turtles. His brother, Tom, a physicist and radio-astronomer, donated the cabin and its surrounding 46 acres on Lake Nicotoon to the Ocala National Forest in 2007, 20 years after Archie’s death.