Dec. 09–For the second time in less than a week, a bear has been euthanized after being caught in a trap set by wildlife officers in the Longwood neighborhood where a woman was mauled.
A 200-pound male bear captured late Sunday “closely fits the description of the animal” involved in the Dec. 2 incident that left 54-year-old Susan Chalfant with serious injuries to her face and head, said Karen Parker, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman.
This is the second bear to be caught in traps set last week and baited with doughnuts and cake in the Wingfield North subdivision off Markham Woods Road. The bear was discovered in the trap about 8:45 p.m. Sunday, officials said.
“Because the bear did fit the description, the decision was made to euthanize the bear,” Parker said.
Because wildlife officials are not sure they have found the offending bear, all three traps will remain in place in the gated community — located in the Zip code with the highest number of complaints about bear-human contact, according to Orlando Sentinel research.
A similarly-sized female bear was euthanized Dec. 5 after wildlife officials determined she too was the right size and weight of the animal that may have injured Chalfant in the most serious bear-human encounter in the state documented history.
“Public safety remains a top priority. Because the incident resulted in serious injuries, we decided to put the bear down,” said Nick Wiley, FWC Executive Director.
Since Jan. 1, 2012, the FWC has euthanized about 40 bears in the region that includes Central Florida. About half of those bears were put down because they had been injured, primarily in collisions with vehicles, according to data released by the wildlife agency.
The first bear caught in the traps was a juvenile female who appeared to be too small — about 75 to 100 pounds — to have been responsible for Chalfant’s injuries. The yearling is doing well at a rehab center, officials said.
Her family members told investigators that on Dec. 2, Chalfant was walking her dogs on English Ivy Court when they became agitated. She turned to walk back home and was knocked down by a bear.
She ran to the home of a neighbor, who called 911 saying Chalfant was drenched in blood. The extent of her injuries have been withheld for privacy reasons.
But wildlife officials confirmed that Chalfant was bitten in the face and was hospitalized at Orlando Regional Medical Center for several days. Her current condition was not available Monday.
Investigators will use evidence gathered at the scene, such as paw prints, to help them determine if they have found the right bear. Samples from the dead bears have been sent in for DNA testing, Parker said.
But it is unclear whether they collected any genetic material from the bear that injured Chalfant in order to compare the blood samples of the two euthanized bears.
Parker said DNA results from the two euthanized bears are expected later this week.
FWC will continue to trap bears, she said, and there is no timeline for when the trapping will end. The male bear was caught in a different trap than the one that caught two females.
“If we trap another bear, it also will likely be euthanized,” Parker said Monday afternoon. “We are trying to be 100 percent certain.”
But some bear country residents are furious at FWC’s decision to kill the bears before confirming if it they were involved in the incident.
“How many? What’s the number? Is it 15 or 20?,” asked Brenda Steigerwald, who lives in a Longwood neighborhood near where Chalfant was injured. “My heart is killing me.”
Steigerwald and her husband Ken have lived in the area for about 20 years and were so outraged by the euthanizations, they called their county elected officials for answers.
“Rather than murdering the wildlife, let’s get some funding to educate the people first,” Ken Steigerwald told the Sentinel.
Wiley said his agency is “aggressive” when dealing with bears that have lost their fear of humans but stressed that residents have a role to play in order to achieve harmony with wildlife. That means not feeding the bears, keeping food and trash inside and maintaining distance.
FWC, he said, plans to hire more wildlife contractors to trap and relocate bears or catch and kill them. The agency currently has 15 working under contract,
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