FLA bear de-listed

[KSdan]

Did anybody hear that they took the FLA. Black bear off the endangered list?  

I am not sure what all that means- but there are plenty of nuisance bears in the Everglades!

Dan- still living in KS  

[Greyfox54]

Marty will be happy to hear about this , he might know some details .

[Jake Diebolt]

What's the difference between a florida black bear and a regular black bear? Different species, or just different subspecies?

[joekeith]

Different address..  

[SlowBowinMO]

I think it's an individual state management issue.  Black bears are protected in MO and next door in Arkansas they have regular seasons for them.

[Terry Green]

There are a lot of bears in N FL......interesting.

[Huntschool]

If I remember correctly the FL bears have a different genetic marker from say the Smokey Mtn bears etc.  Much like the FL "panthers" have a different genetic marker than lions from the Rocky Mtns.

It is this genetic distinction that causes their separation from the rest of their general species.

Is it a sub species difference.... in the case of the panthers yes.. I don't have my "books" at hand to look up the species differential for the bears.....but I do know they are applicable to Bergmans Law which say that in a far North to far South distribution of a single species there will be body size and marker differences seen in the same species. (this is an adaptation to climate)  Think of this like deer.  The northern most white tail is Borealis, to the two southern most the key deer and the Texanus sub species found from the Hill Country North of  San Antonio TX to south TX

[Jake Diebolt]

I figured it was something like that.

[tradlongbow]

I filled out a FWC about black bear hunting in Florida a couple years ago. I hope we see opening season dates real soon.

Darren

[Limey Chris]

The chances of the "florida" black bear being de-classified are slim to non. They even tryed to claim them as a seperate sub species from  the one 20 miles away in Ga.
There are so many bears in north, central and southern Florida that a hunting season only seems to make sense to rational clear thinkers. Unfortunatly the knee jerk reactionary`s make the rules and they`re listerning to flawed invalid data done by groups working to preserve their own jobs not bears.
Kinda like the `gators in the 80`s, hu

[bigbadjon]

I think we will see bear hunting here in my lifetime, but not in this decade. The general public has some weird hangup about hunting them. Do a search for any Florida newspaper for the articles and letters people are sending in just at the prospect. The first argument against it in every paper I read was delisting them opens the door to hunting them.

[metsastaja]

One of many out where I hunt. Last year I had 3 hunts busted by bears walking in unannounced. Neither hogs or dear stay around.  

[Terry Green]

Les....that's a decent size bear. Thanks for sharing that pic.