Bear hunt ended after two days
More than expected killed early; limit of 320 nearly reached.
Florida ended its controversial black bear hunt after just two days because a higher than expected number of bears had been killed.
Wildlife authorities ended the hunt late Sunday, after learning that 295 bears taken overall, nearing the official limit. On Monday, the number was updated to 298.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted a statement on its website saying it had closed the 2015 hunt because it was approaching an agency “objective” of 320 bears for what originally was supposed to be a weeklong hunt.
“The 2015 bear hunt is officially over,” the statement said.
Wildlife officials shut down hunting in designated central and Panhandle regions of Florida after the first day Saturday. The statement late Sunday said additional North and South units were closed to hunting after the second day, meaning hunting had ended in all four “bear management units” where it was allowed.
An agency statement said 112 bears were killed in the Panhandle region at last count, nearly triple the 40 kill limit for that area. In the central region, 139 bears were killed, it said. The statement said 23 bears were taken in the North unit at last count and 21 bears in the South unit before those final two areas were closed Sunday to hunting.
A total of 3,778 bearhunt permits were issued at a cost of $100 to Flor- ida residents and $300 for out-of-state hunters. Those obtaining permits included 1970s rocker Ted Nugent and Liesa Priddy, a rancher and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission member who voted to approve the new hunts.
Each permit allowed a hunter a single kill. Officials set up 33 stations, where hunters were required to record each kill within 12 hours, with some of the last stations to remain open until noon Monday.
The sales brought the agency more than $376,900, which will be used to reduce humanbear conflicts.
Commission Division of Law Enforcement Maj. Craig Duval said officers issued two citations Saturday.
A hunter in the East Panhandle region was issued a citation for killing a cub that weighed just over 40 pounds. To prohibit the killing of cubs, the rules for the hunt required targeted bears to weigh more than 100 pounds. The other citation went to a hunter in the Central region for using bait to lure a bear.
The penalties in both cases are second-degree misdemeanors if the hunter is a first-time offender.
A warning was also issued to a hunter in the Central region for killing an 88-pound bear, while investigations are underway into other cases of baiting bears. Several hunters were also found hunting without their permits and were “educated” on the law that requires hunters to carry their permits, Duval said.
Duval said there were no reports of hunters being injured.
Chuck O’Neal, director of the Seminole County group Speak Up Wekiva, which failed this month to persuade a circuit judge to block the hunt said the state needs to impose a lottery system to limit the number of hunters, prohibit female bears from being killed, increase the minimum weight limit of bears that can be killed from 100 pounds to 200 pounds and prohibit anyone who killed a bear in this year’s hunt from being able to get a permit for a future hunt.
Authorities say they weren’t alarmed by the number killed in the first two days, saying the figures suggest the bear population is higher than they thought. The hunt was approved this year after considerable and contentious debate. Backers estimated Florida’s black bear population had grown to 3,500 — from a few hundred in the 1970s.