Feb. 15–State wildlife officials want more money to help them wrestle the growing number of black-bear complaints.
The Florida Fish Wildlife Conservation Commission will revise its budget request by $645,000 to add trappers to catch problem bears, help its biologists work closer with neighborhoods troubled by bears and shave a year off the agency timetable for a population survey of bears.
A bear mauled Susan Chalfant, 54, while she walked her dogs Dec. 2 in Wingfield North, a gated neighborhood off Markham Woods Road near Longwood, injuring her face, head and neck. The agency described the incident in Seminole County as the worst bear attack ever documented in Florida.
“It wasn’t just that incident,” FWC Director Nick Wiley said in explaining what prompted the agency to amend its funding request for the 2014-15 budget year. “We were already wondering how can we get our arms around this better.”
He said the agency was concerned about a spike in complaints about black bears in several parts of the state, including Central Florida, where the state’s largest native land mammal has broken into homes, killed pets and forced wary residents to change jogging routines and other habits.
In its extra-funding request, which FWC entitled “Florida Black Bear Conflict Assistance,” the agency cited a 53 percent rise in human-bear conflict calls, from 4,030 in 2011 to 6,200 in 2012, and a range of complaints from “nuisance behavior to property damage to severe human injury.” The state’s bear-complaint hotline fielded 6,726 reports in 2013, the most ever, an agency spokeswoman told the Orlando Sentinel.
Wiley said the agency hopes to improve equipment and add “bear response agents.”
If granted, the money would pay for biological testing of hair samples to identify individual bears by their DNA. Wiley said the agency could then finish its proposed black-bear population survey in two years rather than three. The agency’s last bear count, which provides crucial information to update Florida’s bear-management plan, was completed more than a decade ago.
Wildlife experts estimate that 3,000 black bears inhabit the state, more than 10 times as many as roamed Florida 40 years ago when the omnivorous animal was considered a threatened species. FWC contends conflicts are increasing because bear and human populations are growing.
The agency hopes to communicate better with neighborhoods where bears are regular — if often unwanted — visitors. Wiley said FWC’s staff wants to help people in those communities to become more “bear-aware” so they can reduce and avoid conflicts with the animals.
FWC also wants to use the funding to “identify attitudes and preferences of Florida residents concerning options” to reduce human-bear conflicts.
State Sen. David Simmons, a Republican from Altamonte Springs who has been sharply critical of state efforts to control bears, approved of the wildlife agency’s approach as detailed in its funding request. “I think it’s headed in the right direction,” Simmons said. “You can’t ignore what’s been going on.”
He described bears as “hard-core recidivists” who pose a danger to neighborhoods where they find plentiful food.
State Rep. Mike Clelland, whose legislative district includes the Seminole County neighborhood where the mauling occurred, said the region is in “serious need of relief” and hoped that additional funding will improve the wildlife agency’s ability to respond to the concerns of residents.
“How could anyone argue against that?” he asked.
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