WDFW officers cited Lipe for several violations, including hunting black bear during a closed season, using dogs to hunt bear ...

FWC staff will discuss the black bear hunt during their commission meeting on May 21 and 22 in Ocala at the College of Central Florida. Visit FWC’s website to read the entire draft proposal for ...

Florida black bear hunting is illegal, but this regulated season could allow for 187 black bears to be killed.

FLORIDA — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has just released a memo shedding new light on what a proposed black bear hunt could look like in our state. The proposed rules ...

Florida black bear sightings can be reported online to FWC. The last regulated Florida black bear hunt was in 2015. A Florida man was mauled by a 263-pound black bear in May 2025.

The first modern bear hunt was held in 2015, three years after the FWC removed the black bear from the state's list of protected species. Florida was once home to 10,000 bears or more, but that ...

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission maintains the hunt is necessary to manage the state’s growing black bear population and to mitigate rising human-bear conflicts, including a ...

In 2022 the state canceled its spring black bear hunt through a 5-4 commission vote, even though there were no scientific-based management reasons for canceling the hunt. Since then the Sportsmen’s ...

Anyone can hunt in Florida, as long as they are properly licensed. O'Neal said the proposed Florida bear hunt along with the approval of Amendment 2 last year makes it possible for him and others ...

It doesn’t add up. And having complete population data is critical to the commission’s own black bear management plan goals, which have yet to be met.