Florida’s highly controversial first black bear hunt in 21 years starts this Saturday, October 24. Black bears have rebounded from their low point in the 1970s, when just a few hundred remained, today, the population is thought to top 3,000. Passionate groups on both sides are adding unprecedented pressure to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation. The state quota for this minimum 2-day hunt is 320 while the number of hunters obtaining bear permits stood at 2,659 on Friday.
In this video, a 1st-time hunter shows the intensity of a hunt as he passes on a black bear to harvest a monster “blonde phase” bear. Black bears come in more colors than any other North American mammal. They can be black, brown, cinnamon, blonde, blue-gray, or white.
