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Florida has seen the controversial return of legal black bear hunting for the first time in a decade, as hunters armed with rifles and crossbows began roaming the state’s swamps and flatwoods on Saturday, despite vocal opposition from conservation groups.
For the first time since 2015, state-sanctioned exploration brought in more than 160,000 applications for a significantly smaller number of permits. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ultimately awarded 172 bear hunting permits through a random lottery, allowing each successful applicant to kill one bear in sufficiently populated areas.
However, a notable portion of these permits, at least 43, were secured by opponents of hunting who have no intention of using them. This strategy, promoted by the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club, was intended to reduce the total number of bears killed. The black bear population in Florida is widely considered a conservation victory, having grown from just a few hundred in the 1970s to an estimated 4,000 today.
Opponents have questioned whether the hunt was necessary, but have been unable to persuade the courts to stop it.
Limit of one bear per hunter
The 172 people who were granted permits through a random lottery will be able to kill a bear during the 2025 season, which runs from Dec. 6 to Dec. 28. Permits are specific to one of the state’s four designated bear hunting areas, each of which has hunting quotas set by state officials based on the bear population in each area.
To participate, hunters must have a valid hunting license and bear harvest permit, which costs $100 for residents and $300 for non-residents, plus fees. Each application for a permit costs $5.
According to Mark Barton of the Florida chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, an advocacy group that supports hunting, regulated hunting would help encourage maintaining healthy bear populations, and help fund the necessary work.
Holding an annual hunt would help guarantee funding to “advance bear conservation,” Barton said.
According to state wildlife officials, the bear population has grown enough to support a regulated hunt and warrant population management. The state agency views hunting as an effective tool used to manage wildlife populations around the world, and allows the state to monetize conservation efforts through permit and application fees.
A bear hunting guide published by the state Wildlife Commission reads, “Although we have enough suitable bear habitat to support current bear population levels, if the four largest subpopulations continue to grow at current rates, we will not have enough habitat at some point in the future.”
Opponents, meanwhile, have criticized the hunt as cruel, unnecessary and an excuse for hunters to acquire a trophy animal, while the real issue is the encroachment of growing human populations on bear habitat.
Stricter rules than previous hunts
This year’s hunting plan has more stringent rules than the 2015 hunt, in which permits were offered to anyone who could pay for them, resulting in more than 3,700 permits being issued. This led to a chaotic incident which was called off a few days early. Of the 304 bears killed, at least 38 were female bears with cubs, meaning young bears may have died as well.
Ultimately, wildlife officials decided to call off the hunt for the second day after a larger number of bears were killed than expected, although the number of hunters did not exceed the statewide quota.
Doug Moore regularly sees bears on the more than 6,000 acres of timberland he manages in Northeast Florida. President of a local hunting club, Moore generally supports the new rules for bear hunting, even though he and his family members were not issued permits this year.
Moore described the management of the 2015 hunt as “messed up” and “completely wrong”, but said, “They’re doing it right this time.”
Dozens of permits were issued to workers
Proponents of hunting have said the growing number of bears presents a safety problem, with local officials sharing reports of bears on porches, rummaging through trash cans and wandering around neighborhoods and playgrounds.
Activists have argued that the state should focus on other ways to ensure safety through curbing nuisance bears and better waste management.
While opponents failed to convince a judge to stop the hunt, they were issued about a quarter of the total permits, because activists applied for hunting tags they never intended to use.
Joel Cleveland, an opponent of hunting who was issued a permit, said, “There must be a bear roaming the grounds of the Panhandle somewhere, and I’ve got a moratorium on hanging them.”