The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) learned from the 2015 bear hunt, where anti-hunting activists made effective propaganda use of highly selective pictures of bears at public check-in stations. The pictures were part of an emotional anti-hunting campaign. The campaign was so effective that the FWC did not schedule another bear hunt for a decade, despite a burgeoning bear population.
In 2025, Florida had the first recorded human killed by a bear in the state. A large black bear broke into an elderly man’s trailer, dragged him outside, killed and ate him, and killed his dog.
Almost certainly, humans were killed by bears before records were routinely kept. By the time newspapers became regularly available, the bear population had been significantly reduced. Estimates of the bear population before Columbus, referenced by both the FWC and anti-hunting groups, were 11,000. The last estimate of the total Florida bear population by the FWC was 4,350 bears. In spite of significant increases in the bear population, the 4,350 number is continually referenced and repeated in the media. The FWC official “best estimate” is there would be over 11,000 bears in Florida by 2026-2027. The table below is for the four largest subpopulations of bears in Florida.
The FWC has structured the current hunt to offer less emotional content, lower costs, and increased convenience. Hunters who have one of the small number of bear tags are required to report any taking of bears through a phone app. The number of bears to be taken by the hunt is too small to have a measurable effect on the bear population, a maximum of about 133 bears. The hunt was scheduled for a time when sows with cubs are already in dens.
Over twice as many bears are killed in vehicle collisions in Florida every year. It is almost inevitable that over a thousand bear cubs are killed by adult boar bears every year. Bear cubs are not included in FWC population estimates. Harvesting adult boars gives more bear cubs a chance to grow up. According to several sources, the FWC has chosen not to release bear harvest numbers until the hunt has concluded. This limits the number of emotional appeals about people killing bears until the bear hunt is over. The FWC states that they may not release an official bear population estimate until 2029. From clickorlando.com:
Scientists are working on a new population study, but results will not be available until 2029.
The value of a bear hunt in Florida this year is not any meaningful reduction or stabilization of the bear population. It is to install a method to reach those goals in the future. The only viable method to keep bear populations at a stable level is through hunting.
The idea of a “balance of nature” is a myth. Only humans are capable of managing bear populations. In a “state of nature”, animal populations are not managed. They fluctuate wildly up and down as resources are depleted and slowly regrown over time. Predator/Prey ratios tend to vary enormously over time. Only humans have the necessary understanding and resources to create stable animal populations over time. Emotional appeals are not useful in formulating policies to create stable populations. A logical approach to managing bear populations must not be based on a desire to make all bears immortal. All bears will die. Human management of bear populations benefit both bears and humans.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
A good thing for the anti’s tend to be nuts.