Young said that bear overpopulation in his area has become so severe that people living just five miles outside city limits have had to walk their trash to garbage collection trucks to avoid bear interactions.
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The penalties in both cases are second-degree misdemeanors if the hunter is a first-time offender. But that would be no fun for the hunters, said one Central Florida hunter to CBS News, “They do a lot of damage on the property”, he said.
Commission Division of Law Enforcement Maj.
FWC said Monday that 298 bears were killed Saturday and Sunday, 22 of those in South Florida. “Florida’s strategy to allegedly reduce human-bear conflicts [through hunting] is predicated upon attracting trophy hunters and it’s akin to a crime control strategy that involves shooting generally into a crowd”, the president of the Humane Society of the United States recently told National Geographic.
Black bears hadn’t been hunted in Florida for 21 years and they’re relatively naive about being prey.
“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.
Wildlife officials said they had no reported injuries to any of the 3,778 hunters who bought permits to kill a bear.
A statewide survey of how many bears live in Florida is underway and won’t be completed until next year. “There are uncertainties, but we put really good buffers in place to deal with those uncertainties and we’re still very confident that we’re within those sustainable limits”.
Wildlife authorities said late Sunday that 295 bears were slaughtered overall, nearing the official limit of 320.
“Mayhem followed by long-term disaster are the predictable results of not stopping the hunt for the entire state”, said Frank Jackalone, Florida staff director for the Sierra Club, and Debbie Matthews, its Florida Chapter Chair. Weeks before the season began, hunters scouted locations on foot, with trail cameras, and using Google Earth. “There’s no reason why this state can’t sustain a population of 3,500”.
The death toll surpassed weeklong quotas set for two of four hunting zones on the first day.
Eason also noted that hunters were reported to have been scouting for bears in the East Panhandle prior to the start of the hunt. He said a hunter in Central Florida was warned because he brought in an 88-pound bear.
Just three years ago, the black bear was on the state’s endangered-species list.
“You wonder why they’re out there, it’s because that’s where the food is”, Sugalski said.
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Duval said there were no reports of hunters being injured.
