Florida Bear Hunt to Harvest Very Small Number of Bears

AmmoLand ^ | October 14, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Florida is permitting a bear hunt from December 6 to December 28, 2025. The hunt administrators will issue a meager 187 permits for bears, based on a lottery system. A chance to obtain a bear permit will cost $5. There is no limit to the number of chances that can be submitted per person. If someone with $5 million wanted to submit a million lottery chances, they could do so.  However, only one win can be used to obtain a permit per person. If a person submits 100 chances and wins five, only one permit will be allowed to that person. From pnj.com:

Here’s the catch: Regardless of how many entries a person wins, they are only entitled to receive one non-transferable permit.

Lottery winners will be notified and allowed to purchase a bear hunting permit, which will cost Florida residents $100 and out-of-state residents $300. No more than 10% of permits can be issued to non-residents from outside the state.

The number of permits has been reduced to 172, from the proposed 187. The number is based on a premise of “if all the bear hunters killed fertile female bears, the harvest would not reduce the bear population.  From orlandoweekly.com:

 After saying last month that it would issue 187 permits, the commission has reduced that number to 172, according to its website. A commission spokeswoman didn’t give an explanation for the decrease.

About 160,000 entries have been submitted, and most have been claimed. About two dozen are yet to be awarded. At least 39 of about 150 awarded permits went to people who specifically entered the lottery to prevent hunters from obtaining a permit.

From orlandosentinal.com:

At least 39 permit-winners are unlikely to hunt because they entered the lottery to reduce the chances that bonafide hunters

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: banglist; bear; fl; florida; floridabear; hunt

[marktwain]

The Florida bear population is probably over 10,000. An official population estimate has not been done since 2014/15, when it was over 4,000.

[AndyTheBear]

Will not be visiting Florida during these dates then.

[George from New England]

What a joke

[George from New England]

Leftists still in control

[Surrounded_too]

Crooked Lottery.

Makes the whole state look crooked.

[Libloather]

Does the pic-a-nic basket ploy still work?

[coloradan]

“At least 39 of about 150 awarded permits went to people who specifically entered the lottery to prevent hunters from obtaining a permit.”

It would sure be a shame if some of them were mauled or killed by a bear. The reason The State, you know, the all-knowing, beneficent government that is the font of all wisdom, and can never have enough power, according to leftists, is having the hunt at all is because there are too many bears.

So, these protesters should consider whether they really know more than their overlords.

[Vigilanteman]

Bears, like any other wildlife, can become a nuisance if unchecked. They are finding it out the hard way in the rural areas of Japan where marginal land is being abandoned due to declining population and fewer farmers. The bears are finding out that people, pets and livestock are easier prey than what was left behind on the fallow land which was mainly undulates like deer.

[Starboard]

“you know, the all-knowing, beneficent government that is the font of all wisdom, and can never have enough power, according to leftists”

**************

Big government can only exist by continually expanding its power.

Small government doesn’t need lots of power.

The bigger government gets the smaller the people become.

[Ezekiel]

Leave it to the gummyment to Gummy up the works.

(It bears repeating.)

[DannyTN]

It’s bearly a hunt

[null and void]

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

[Ezekiel]

It’s simply not pawsible fur the bureaucrats to do anything right.

This just ursa the little guy..

[DannyTN]

One of the bureacrats is probably collecting a honey pot.

[Ezekiel]

Must be a real piglet!

[bgill]

If only bears could issue 187,000 permits for bear hunters.

[skinny old man]

Don’t they need a Big Game license to apply?That wuld limit only hunters from applying.Unless the antis buy one too.

[Joe 6-pack]

Is it you, Yogi?

[GaryCrow]

Wildlife numbers have to be managed and biologists have determined there are too many bears. It’s a shame that on a discussion board for republicans where I’d like to think common sense would prevail we still see emotional kneejerk outbursts over something so obvious.