SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – After the first-ever fatal black bear attack in Florida history, a group here in Central Florida is asking the state’s wildlife commission to postpone discussion on a possible bear hunt.
An online agenda for next week’s Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting in Ocala shows staff are expected to present the Commission with options for “amendments to hunting rules to implement a sustainable and repeatable hunt structure based on bear population information.”
There’s been talk about bringing back a bear hunt since December 2024, when commissioners directed staff to develop options for them to consider.
Chuck O’Neal with Speak Up Wekiva tells News 6 he believes FWC should delay a May vote from the Commission considering the tragic death in Collier County earlier this month.
“In light of the recent tragedy in Jerome, we feel it’s inappropriate for the FWC to make a decision, because that decision would largely be based on emotion, fear, and retribution and not based on science,” O’Neal said. “They are constitutionally directed to base their decisions on science.”
O’Neal spoke to News 6 about the proposed rules of hunting in 2025 and called for other solutions to manage the population.
“I think we all understand that they’re attracted by garbage, and the way to get them not to have bad interactions with humans is to control the garbage,” O’Neal said. “A lot of the places in the state where we have bad interactions, like Franklin County, there’s no mandatory garbage pickup.”
According to estimates from FWC, there are about 4,050 black bears living across Florida. In the 1970s, there were just several hundred bears. The agency states online it is “one of Florida’s most successful conservation efforts.”
“It’s absolutely our responsibility. We moved into a habitat where there were 11,000 bears at one time in Florida, and they were hunted down to 300 in 1974,” O’Neal said. “It’s incumbent upon us to live in their habitat and we know how to do that. It’s just a matter of doing it.”
The last time there was a bear hunting season in Florida was in 2015.
Mark Barton, a board member for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and a PhD ecologist, tells News 6 that he believes there are lessons the state has learned from that hunt, and any concerns have been addressed in the new proposal.
“One of the things that we would like to see going forward is to have a ratio of harvest that is more weighted towards male bears. Because, typically from an ecological perspective, females are far more important. And so, any population growth models that are done by the scientists at FWC are focused on those female bears because those are the ones that decide, you know, how the population is doing,” Barton said.
Barton said the previous hunt was “derby style,” which incentivizes hunters to take the first bear that they see. This time around, he says the rules of the hunt would give the same number of tags as the quota available.
“So, there’s 187 tags that are going to be given out, and that means that a maximum of 187 bears can be harvested if all of the tags are filled, which is not likely to happen,” said Barton. “Then they made the season longer and that allows hunters to be more selective because typically hunters are going to want to harvest a larger bear. They provide more meat, and those larger bears are typically going to be males.”
Barton said that they are also planning for a December 2025 hunt, the latest window possible within the allowable hunting season, which should ensure more females are already getting ready for hibernation.
“So, the chances of harvesting females are going to go down drastically with the hunt that’s been proposed. And so, because of that, we’re probably going to see a much more favorable result in the end,” Barton said.
While O’Neal calls the hunt a “regression back to the past,” Barton believes it will help the bears in the long run.
“The science supports that the population can handle a hunt,” Barton said. “It provides a resource, and that resource can generate a lot of funding for conservation. And so, this is how the North American model of conservation works. If a species isn’t doing well, you prevent any harvest of that animal until they can sort of bounce back, but then once they have bounced back, then you allow a very limited and regulated hunt to occur because people will pay a lot of money to be able to hunt and that money can then be used to go back into conservation to help that population grow even further.”
Depending on what direction FWC staff receive from the Commission next week, a final hearing is expected at a later date.
Some frequently asked questions about the proposed hunt have been answered by FWC below:
Why is a bear hunt being considered now?
The FWC’s Bear Management Program gave Commissioners a 5-year update on implementing the 2019 Florida Black Bear Management Plan at the December 2024 Commission meeting, highlighting recent bear management and research efforts. Following the presentation, the Commissioners directed staff to return to a future Commission meeting to propose options for implementing a potential bear hunt.
The primary objectives of regulated hunting are to balance species population numbers with suitable habitat and to maintain a healthy population, as stated in the 2019 Bear Management Plan. Hunting provides people with recreational and economic benefits. A hunter can use the meat, pelt, fat, and other parts of any bear they harvest.
Why would the FWC consider reopening regulated black bear hunting?
If commissioners decide to reopen regulated bear hunting, it would provide access to the resource and manage the population. Hunting would allow the FWC to start managing population growth rates for the Bear Management Units, or BMUs, with the largest bear subpopulations. Balancing species population growth with suitable habitat helps to maintain a healthy population, and hunting is an important and effective tool that is used to manage wildlife populations across the world. It is important to acknowledge that managing bear populations does not manage human-bear conflicts. Conflict prevention and management will still need to continue regardless of whether Commissioners choose to re-open regulated bear hunting.
What options will FWC staff propose to the Commissioners?
FWC staff reviewed previous regulated bear hunting in Florida as well as regulated bear hunts in other states, and reached out to the public for their comments, concerns and ideas on this topic. Staff then developed multiple proposals and are bringing them to the public for their feedback in April. Staff will then make appropriate changes and present proposals to Commissioners at their May 21-22, 2025 meeting.
Can the Florida black bear population sustain a hunt?
Following the most recent statewide population estimate in 2015, multiple bear subpopulations were determined to be large and healthy enough to sustain a hunt. The FWC estimates the four largest subpopulations have grown annually since that time, and no subpopulations have shown evidence of decline.