I live 10 miles from Lake Mary (Wekiva\Lake Brantley area). I have pictures of black bears walking through my yard (5pm). A 300lb black bear was laying by the front door of my neighbor. A couple years ago I saw a big one walking down our main road, this was on Halloween evening. I called the police. They said thanks for calling. That bear could have killed a child out that night. Now we have Coyotes. I have a 5 year old son. No way would we let him play alone, even in the front yard. Too dangerous. Bears all over the place where I live and they know which days are trash days. It’s just a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt or killed in my area from a bear. They need to be trapped and relocated (or shot)
Few years back this one spacey neighbor of mine left dried salmon on his fish racks, he fed his dogs salmon from river. Grizz came in was tearing up the racks. Neighbor who is usually smoked up and scared of his own shadow comes out with 308 and bangs the grizz, then runs into his cabin cause the bear looked right at him and pissed off and tearing at the wound. So neighbor shoots through broken window that had plastic on and hits grizz again. Grizz heads off into the woods,busting trees down with his jaws, hollaring up a storm.Neighbor got his nerve up and tracked bear,scared outta his mind, had visons of the grizz laying in wait to eat him, ha ha. Anyway, he found the bear dead and skinned it out, tanned hide. Still drags out dusty hide to tell his story if ya get him drunk. It really scared the bejesus outta him just the same.
The most dangerous blk bear age wise are the 2 year old boars, they don't think right at times and always seem to want to get a taste of you.
I live on the other side of Lake Mary and there have been several bears in our neighborhood. One night one came through my back yard. I have an Akita (bear hunters) and she nearly went through the back sliding glass door when she saw it.