Florida Black Bear Background and Recovery

A unique subspecies of the American black bear, the Florida black bear once ranged throughout Florida and over the border into southern Georgia and Alabama. The bears once numbered over 12,000, now an estimated 2,500-3,000 bears remain in these states. Defenders of Wildlife considers the Florida black bear an umbrella and keystone species, indicating the health of the ecosystem. Maintaining healthy bear populations is an important way to conserve the diversity of Florida's native species.

Habitat and Range

Florida's bears use a variety of forest habitats such as

  • sand-pine scrub,
  • oak scrub,
  • upland hardwood forests
  • Forested wetlands, especially river corridors and swamps.

Protecting the habitat of the wide-ranging black bear benefits many other species that depend on the same habitat type, such as the threatened Florida scrub jay and the eastern indigo snake. For this reason, bears are often referred to as an “umbrella species”.

The bulk of Florida's bears occur in six major populations located in the

  • Ocala National Forest/Wekiva River Basin,
  • Big Cypress National Preserve/Everglades National Park,
  • Apalachicola National Forest,
  • Osceola National Forest/ Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (south Georgia)
  • St. Johns River corridor
  • Eglin Air Force Base.

Smaller populations occur in

  • Chassahowitzka,
  • Highlands and Glades counties.


Isolated bear populations need a minimum of 500,000 to 1 million acres to ensure their long term survival. Only in the Apalachicola and Big Cypress region is this much bear habitat in public ownership, and even there, not all the protected areas are adjacent to one another. The public lands where the major bear populations are located are adjoined by private lands that are also very important to the bears’ survival.

Diet

Florida's black bears are omnivores and eat a wide variety of foods. Eighty percent of a bear’s diet is plant material like:

  • berries
  • acorns
  • leaves and roots
  • tender parts of saw palmettos
  • hearts of the sabal palm

They also eat insects like

  • carpenter ants
  • termites
  • walking sticks

Only a small portion of the bear’s diet is meat like armadillos, wild pigs and deer.

Threats

Florida bears face numerous threats. Defenders is working to minimize these threats through protection of large, connected natural areas, good public and private land management, education, and transportation improvements.

Habitat Loss to Development

Nearly 20 acres of wildlife habitat are being lost to development every hour in Florida, one of the most rapidly urbanizing states in the nation. To ensure survival of this subspecies, it is critical that bear habitat, adjacent to and serving to link existing public lands, be purchased as public lands or managed by private landowners in a manner compatible with the long-term survival of the Florida black bear.

Roadkills

More than 1,356 bears are documented to have been killed by vehicles since 1976. Well over 100 bears are killed on Florida roads each year, with the record number, 132, occurring in 2002. Roadkills are considered the leading known cause of Florida bear mortality.

According to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the state's high-speed paved roads have increased at the rate of 4.5 miles per day over the last 50 years. Road-widening projects and more traffic increase the danger of vehicle-caused mortality which can lead to the extinction of small subpopulations and the long term problem of isolating individuals from food, shelter and mates.

Human/Bear Interactions

A growing problem threatens to undermine bear conservation. The FWC reports that the annual number of human/bear interactions rose from one in 1978 to 1,563 in 2004. In 2006, Floridians experienced the highest number of conflicts in almost 25 years. There have been numerous cases of bears in buildings, causing property or crop damage, bears taking livestock and pets, and other serious problems.

No bear attacks on humans have been documented in Florida, but as the state’s human population continues to grow and encroach upon the remaining bear habitat, and as bear populations hopefully recover and expand, confrontations are anticipated to grow. Conflicts can be prevented if people learn the simple ways of living responsibly in bear country.

As Florida residents, we all have a responsibility to keep our wildlife wild. Conflicts between humans and bears are most often created by people. The prevention of nuisance bears relies on actions taken by every resident living in bear country. Intentional and unintentional feeding of bears is the number one source of the problem. It is illegal to feed bears in the state of Florida.