Florida black bear hunt ends Sunday

FLORIDA — Today marks the final day of a statewide black bear hunt. It’s the first one in Florida since 2015.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) only issued about 170 bear hunting permits.

The commission says it set this limit to restrict the bear population from growing.

Even if hunters had 100 percent success this year, FWC said it believes the population would be stable and not decline in the future.

Hunters are not required to bring harvested bears to manual check stations, they only need to call FWC and report their results.