FLORIDA — As more bears have been seen in urban areas across Central Florida over the past several years, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is considering a black bear hunt.

It has been nearly 10 years since Florida saw a week-long bear hunt. FWC recently requested a proposal for another hunt, despite staff recommending against it and stating that no action is needed for the bear population.

FWC staff recently updated commissioners on their bear management plan and objectives for the future, including population, habitat, human-bear conflicts and education/outreach.

While FWC commissioners didn’t say yes to a bear hunt, they didn’t say no either.

  • Florida Wildlife Conservation Commissioners are not ruling out a bear hunt for 2025

  • However, FWC staff reported no action is needed following their updated bear management plan

  • There are just over 4,000 bears across the state, with more than 1,200 in Central Florida 

A bear sighting in Kimora Hennessey’s Seminole County community is not a rare occurrence. Her property, surrounded by trees, woods, and water, is an ideal spot for bears. She said she’s been seeing them outside her home and in her community for the past 20 years.

“We love the wildlife here and the bears are just one of the most joyous occasions,” Hennessy expressed. “Especially when you get to see a mother with its cubs.” 

If she doesn’t spot them outside her office, her trail cam will. Bears roaming her neighborhood aren’t a nuisance, but she said the thought of them being hunted would be.

She said her community uses bear resistant trash cans.

“That would be just awful. I would be very upset about that,” she said. “I don’t see why we need to bring down the population. It’s not like they are overrunning our neighborhood or have dozens of them in the yard. It’s an occasional sighting once in a while.”

The FWC said the mere presence of a black bear does not represent a problem.

However, FWC said urban sprawl encroaching on traditionally remote areas has bears and human encountering each other more often.

Brad Lowery, the president of the Florida Bow Hunters Council, said when a potential bear hunt is discussed, people interpret it incorrectly.

“We do not want to see all the bears gone from Florida,” Lowery explained. “We want to maintain a healthy population and the hunting community feels the best way to do that is, put a value to these animals that they currently do not have.”

The Central Florida region, which is from the Ocala National Forest to Wekiva area, has the largest population of bears in the state, with more than 1,200.

Lowery said they could have handled the 2015 hunt better. There was no set number of bears allowed to be hunted, and the hunt ended in just two days.

If a 2025 hunt is allowed, they would have a set number of bears to hunt.

“The way it is actually on the books now, to where it is a tag system, they would only sell the tags for the number of bears they wanted to harvest,” Lowery explained. “So it wouldn’t create the circus atmosphere that came out of the first hunt.”

FWC said there were over 3,200 bears in 2015, and more than 3,200 hunters purchases permits to participate. After two days, 295 bears were killed, including 139 in Central Florida.

Currently, there are just over 4,000 black bears in Florida, according to FWC.