runs from Dec. 6 to Dec. 28.<\/a><\/p>\nThe permits are specific to one of the state\u2019s four designated bear hunting zones, each of which have a hunting quota set by state officials based on the bear population in each region.<\/p>\n
In order to participate, hunters must hold a valid hunting license and a bear harvest permit, which costs $100 for residents and $300 for nonresidents, plus fees. Applications for the permits cost $5 each.<\/p>\n
Florida resident Joel Cleveland smiles while showing off his Florida bear hunting permit in Tampa on Dec. 5, 2025. AP<\/p>\n
The regulated hunt will help incentivize maintaining healthy bear populations, and help fund the work that is needed, according to Mark Barton of the Florida chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, an advocacy group that supported the hunt.<\/p>\n
Having an annual hunt will help guarantee funding to \u201ckeep moving conservation for bears forward,\u201d Barton said.<\/p>\n
Hunting as a management tool<\/p>\n
According to state wildlife officials, the bear population has grown enough to support a regulated hunt and warrant population management.<\/p>\n
The state agency sees hunting as an effective tool that is used to manage wildlife populations around the world, and allows the state to monetize conservation efforts through permit and application fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we have enough suitable bear habitat to support our current bear population levels, if the four largest subpopulations continue to grow at current rates, we will not have enough habitat at some point in the future,\u201d reads a bear hunting guide published by the state wildlife commission.<\/p>\n
Opponents meanwhile have called the hunt cruel, unnecessary and an excuse for hunters to bag a trophy animal when the real issue is the ever-growing human population encroaching on bear habitat.<\/p>\n
Stricter regulations than the last hunt<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s hunting plan has more stringent rules than the 2015 hunt, in which permits were provided to anyone who could pay for them, resulting in more than 3,700 permits issued.<\/p>\n
That led to a chaotic event that was shut down days early.<\/p>\n
A black bear inspects a garbage can in Florida. WKMG\/YouTube<\/p>\n
A protester sets up a van with a large sign calling for the end of the bear hunting permits in Florida. WKMG\/YouTube<\/p>\n
Of the 304 bears killed, at least 38 were females with cubs, meaning the young bears may have died too.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, wildlife officials decided to call off the hunt after its second day after a higher than expected number of bears were killed, though hunters did not exceed the statewide quota.<\/p>\n
Doug Moore regularly sees bears on the more than 6,000 acres of timberland that he manages in northeast Florida.<\/p>\n
The president of a local hunting club, Moore is generally supportive of the new regulations for the bear hunt, even though he and his family members weren\u2019t issued a permit this year.<\/p>\n
Moore described the management of the 2015 hunt as \u201cfouled up\u201d and \u201ctotally wrong\u201d but said, \u201cthey\u2019re doing it right this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the 304 bears killed, at least 38 were females with cubs, meaning the young bears may have died too. WKMG\/YouTube<\/p>\n
Activists were issued dozens of permits<\/p>\n
Backers of the hunt have said that growing numbers of bears present a safety problem, with local officials sharing reports of bears on porches, rooting through garbage cans and roaming neighborhoods and playgrounds.<\/p>\n
Activists have argued that the state should instead focus on other means of curbing nuisance bears and assuring safety through better trash management.<\/p>\n
While opponents failed to convince a judge to stop the hunt, they were issued about a quarter of the overall permits, after activists applied for hunting tags they never intend to use.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomewhere out there a bear will be walking the grounds of the Panhandle, and I gave them a stay of execution,\u201d said Joel Cleveland, an opponent of the hunt who was issued one of the permits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the\u00a0first time in a decade, hunters armed with rifles and crossbows are fanning out across Florida\u2019s swamps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1684,9796,28,30,29,14604,4278],"class_list":{"0":"post-73510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-bears","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-hunting","14":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73510","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=73510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}