Is Florida’s Bear Hunt Necessary?

[SecularMotion]

Florida is poised to open a sport hunting season on black bears this Saturday. It's the first such season in 21 years. And as nearly 3,000 recipients of special bear tags ready their rifles, controversy surrounds the occasion.

A handful of other states use hunting seasons to control black bear populations, but conservationists wonder whether it's necessary in Florida. The influx of people to the Sunshine State has already made the habitat for the iconic Florida panther so fragmented that the big cat’s prospects for survival are bleak.

“In a state that has seen such explosive human population growth, the bisection of so much habitat means that any wide-ranging apex predator is going to have difficulty making a living in that matrix of development,” says Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Yet in Florida—the third most populous state in the nation, with 20 million residents—bear numbers over the last few decades have surged along with the human population.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151023-black-bear-hunt-florida-animals-conservation/

Updated Sunday at 9:40 p.m. A total of 295 bears were reported killed in the first two days of the hunt. That's close to the number officials hoped to cull from Florida's estimated population of 3,000 bears. The remaining four days of the hunt have been called off.

[pscot]

1. No

[Eleanors38]

2. The extra blanket on my bed last night wasn't "necessary," but it was preferrable...

There is nothing wrong with a controlled bear hunt (as this one in FL appeared to be), and may help keep bears away from suburban areas. It is also a chance for a number of hunters lucky enough to win a draw to hunt bears for the adventure and food. Keep in mind, many of the areas where bears are hunted are funded in whole or in part by hunting/lfishing license fees, permit fees, and hunting draw app. fees. Hunters and fishers pony up the bulk of money so that All citizens can use those lands for a variety of reasons, including hunting.

Bear pops are increasing in two areas of Texas (on the border with LA whose hunter-funded game & fish department has successfully Increased bear populations; and in the lower trans-Pecos region where populations have returned from Mexico), and may reach huntable populations in a few years.

Hunter-funded efforts have successfully re-introduced Texas Bighorn sheep populations, and are having some positive effect in re-introducing Eastern Turkeys into E. Texas.

This is why tolerant and constructive bird-watchers (including many who do Not hunt) purchase hunting licenses nevertheless: These funds help to maintain and expand ALL species of birds and other animals.

I wish others put their $ where their is.

[Eleanors38]

3. Please note the HSUS is an anti-hunting lobby/pressure group. All it does.

Further, the Florida Panther and the black bear are two different species who live in completely different manners.

Wildlife corridors are a good way to help most species, and hunters and taxpayers are helping to fund such efforts in both CA & FL. Maybe the HSUS will chip off some of its $100,000,000 anti-hunting litigation fund to help. But don't count on it.

[NickB79]

4. Yes.

Their numbers have been surging, and no non-lethal options have been presented to prevent human-bear interactions. Humans have been a natural predator of bears in North America for the past 10,000 years. Whether they use stone spears or shotguns is immaterial.