Florida<\/a> wildlife officials are investigating the fatal shooting of a black bear near Lake Kerr in Marion County that neighbors say left three cubs without their mother.<\/p>\nThe Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) confirmed it responded to reports that a bear had been shot and said the investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n
What we know<\/p>\n
A neighbor who declined to give his name said he saw the bear walking near a home before hearing a gunshot. He said the wounded bear appeared disoriented before collapsing and dying near a property line.<\/p>\n
The neighbor said three cubs ran from the area after the shooting. He has since seen two of the younger cubs but said a third, older cub has not been spotted recently.<\/p>\n
Giovanna Gallottini, a volunteer with the nonprofit Ocala National Forest Alliance, said young bears rely on their mothers to learn how to find food and avoid danger.<\/p>\n
“Mother teaches them everything \u2014 where to forage, what kind of food is good, where to go, what to avoid,” he explained. “[She] also protects them from other predators and also from adult male bears.”<\/p>\n
Under Florida law, a bear may be killed outside a legal hunting season if a person reasonably believes the bear poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to a person or pet, or if the bear is causing substantial damage to a structure where the person is seeking shelter. A person who kills a bear in self-defense must report it to the FWC within 24 hours, and the agency must collect and dispose of the remains.<\/p>\n
What we don’t know<\/p>\n
The FWC has not announced whether anyone will face charges in connection with the shooting.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
This story was written based on information shared by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Giovanna Gallottini, a volunteer with the nonprofit Ocala National Forest Alliance, and residents near Lake Kerr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief FWC is investigating the shooting death of a black bear near Lake Kerr in Marion County.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14605,28,8659,30,29,4747,149837,149836,3833,61800],"class_list":["post-370196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-black-bear","tag-florida","tag-florida-fish-and-wildlife","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fwc","tag-giovanna-gallottini","tag-lake-kerr","tag-marion-county","tag-ocala-national-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}