Posted on 10/06/2023 4:06:27 AM PDT by marktwain
The number of Florida bears has skyrocketed. The bear population was estimated at 300-500 in 1974. Black bear hunting was banned in Florida in 1994 when the population was estimated at 1280 to 1290. In 1998, the population was estimated at 1500. According to the tampabay.com, there were 2,000 to 2,500 bears in 2006.
Bears are very adaptable. There remains considerable habitat for bears to populate in Florida in competition with humans. The number of bears today is likely much higher than in 2016. If there is sufficient food and habitat available, bears will increase their population by 10-20% per year. From a 2016 article published in the news-journalonline.com:
An estimated 4,350 adult black bears live across the state, an increase of 60 percent since the last statewide estimate in 2002, said Thomas Eason, director of habitat and species conservation for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That’s a return from an estimated population of 300 to 500 bears in the 1970s and about a third of the number estimated to live in the state when European settlers arrived.
“They’re one of our greatest success stories from a conservation perspective in Florida,” Eason said. Bears are “abundant,” he said, their “populations are strong and robust and growing.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Four of my seven rentals in Wakulla, county, Fl. have been complaining of bears distributing their trash. The county is/was very rural. The recent building boom has filled the neighborhoods with deer and other wild animals. A bear foraging in the woods spends all day getting the calories he needs. A quick run through the trash nets him leftover pizza, stale donuts and all the calories he needs for a week. I never used to see deer in the daytime. But now they’re all over and you can spot them going from one back yard to another anytime.
As for culling these things, you wouldn’t want to have someone firing a rifle near houses as the bullets can travel a long, long way. Letting the hunters hunt in the forest means they’ll be culling the bears that aren’t a problem. The way to do it is trap them. Once they’ve gotten refined sugar, they probably will always be a problem.
I’d like to mention I see YouTube videos of people who think wild animals are just like people and you can make friends. I’ve had to caution some former city people renters this isn’t the case. See a bear, back away. A half-grown bear weighs more than you do, and he’s armed. This isn’t a Disney flick. (Former Disney. Today’s Disney would feature a “trans” bear.)
The way trees are coming down in Hillsborough County, FL to make way for apartment complexes to house illegal aliens and Puerto Ricans receiving Section 8 fed housing assistance, I’m not sure about the claims this article is making. Maybe more bears on fewer acres looks like a population increase, compared to the same number of bears on twice the acreage, if you’re someone who’s in the business of making and selling ammo.
Had to send this to sis in Jacksonville
She’s deathly afraid of bears when hiking or camping, so I love poking her with stories like this. Her hubby bought a .454 Casull just for that reason
Poking sis what little brothers do
But do they crap in the woods?
No, only popes do that.
Does that mean Bears are Catholic?
If you don’t hunt, or at least cull animals... They tend to increase unabated.
In the Maritimes of Canada and the state of Maine for instance, they kill close to 10,000 moose every year... If they didn’t, they’d be swimming in moose sh*t!
Just so long as they don’t end up like Grafton NH
Humans have increased the amount of biomass the earth can maintain in several ways.
1. They regulate the water cycle with dams and irrigation, so there are fewer droughts and floods.
2. They increase the amount of nitrogen in the soil by making fertilizer from natural gas which was trapped in rock.
3. They release CO2 which was trapped in coal and petroleum. Plants grow better with more CO2.
There are a lot of places with bear overpopulation, but I’ve never seen a national map, or an international map, charting the places where there is an overabundance.
Polar bears, Grizzly bears, Brown bears and Black bears.
I grew up in N Florida. You never saw a bear even out in the State forests. Now they’re attacking people in their driveway. Similar deal with gators. They were always around and you had to use caution but now every roadside ditch is filled with gators.
Agree Bear hide rugs still selling well.
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