Florida’s First Bear Hunt in 10 Years Sees Low Kill After Activist Buyouts

Florida Activists Paid 14 Bear Hunters $31,000 to Stay Home

Florida held its first black bear hunt in a decade last December, but animal activists ran an aggressive campaign to reduce the kill.

Bear Warriors United, a nonprofit based in Oviedo, paid 14 hunters a total of $31,000 to surrender their permits and agree not to kill any bears.

The group offered $2,000 per permit after an anonymous donor stepped in to bankroll the effort. The group also reported that around 43 permits were won by activists in the lottery who never planned to hunt.

When the season ended on December 28, only 52 bears were killed out of 172 permits issued—a success rate FWC said was similar to other states with comparable hunt rules.

State officials called it a success. Bear Warriors United called the low numbers a victory, with Executive Director Katrina Shadix saying the organization was “ecstatic that less than a third of the bear killing tags were utilized.”

A Rich Donor Made the Call

The cash payouts started with a phone call.

Bear Warriors United director Katrina Shadix said an anonymous donor contacted her in spring 2025 after hearing about efforts to stop the hunt.

The donor owned property with bears on it and reportedly told Shadix he was wealthy and nobody would kill his bears.

He offered to fund $2,000 payments to any hunter willing to give up their permit, drafting contracts that banned recipients from using, selling, or transferring their tags.

Shadix began vetting hunters and forwarding their information to the donor’s legal team.

37 Hunters Called About the Money

Once word spread about the payouts, permit holders started reaching out. Shadix said 37 hunters contacted her organization to ask about the deal.

Some needed the money for bills. One hunter told her he just wanted cash for Christmas presents for his family.

In the end, 14 hunters signed contracts and collected the $2,000. The total came to $31,000 paid out to keep bears alive.

Shadix said she asked every hunter why they chose the money over hunting, and the answers came down to one thing: they needed it more than they needed a bear.

163,000 People Wanted 172 Permits

The bear hunt lottery became a competition between hunters and activists before a single shot was fired. More than 163,000 applications flooded in for just 172 permits, each costing $5 to enter.

That brought in over $817,000 for the state. The odds of winning worked out to about one in a thousand.

Hunters could submit unlimited entries, so some people spent hundreds of dollars trying to win. Six permits went to out-of-state hunters.

The rest stayed with Florida residents, though not all of them planned to hunt.

Activists Flooded the Lottery System

The Sierra Club of Florida launched a campaign called “Bag a Tag, Spare a Bear” that encouraged anti-hunters to enter the lottery and sit on the permits.

The group claimed to have activated 27,000 opponents to submit applications. At least 43 permits ended up in the hands of activists who never intended to use them.

One nonprofit director reportedly spent $200,000 of his own money helping people sign up and covering their hunting license costs.

The strategy worked. More than a quarter of all permits went to people who wanted to save bears, not shoot them.

One Man Spent $1,000 on Entries

Chuck Mitchell, a 73-year-old from Tallahassee, bought 200 lottery entries at $5 each just to keep a permit away from hunters. He won one.

Mitchell calls himself a hunter and fisherman, not an animal rights activist, but he remembers the chaos of Florida’s last bear hunt in 2015 and wanted no part of another one.

He said bear meat can be unpalatable depending on the animal’s diet, and he only kills what he eats. Growing up in North Carolina, he said he would sooner eat a raccoon or possum than a bear.

900 Trail Cameras Watched Every Move

Bear Warriors United did not stop at cash payouts.

Shadix said her organization installed between 900 and 1,000 cellular trail cameras on public and private land across all four hunting zones before the season opened.

The cameras let activists monitor hunter activity in real time from their phones. Shadix told reporters that everyone would be watching.

The surveillance added another layer of pressure on hunters already facing protests, lawsuits, and public backlash.

The 2015 Hunt Ended in Disaster

Florida’s last bear hunt went sideways fast. In October 2015, the state sold unlimited permits and set a quota of 320 bears over seven days.

Hunters hit 304 in just two days.

At least 38 of the dead were females with cubs, meaning the young bears likely died too. Public outcry forced the state to halt the hunt early and put bear seasons on hold.

The 2025 hunt was designed to avoid those mistakes with a lottery system, limited permits, and a late-season window when females will be denning with cubs.

A Fatal Attack Changed Everything

In May 2025, an 89-year-old man named Robert Markel and his dog were killed by a black bear near his home in Jerome, a rural area of Collier County.

It was the first fatal bear attack in Florida history.

Wildlife officials killed three bears in the area and confirmed through DNA that a 263-pound male was responsible.

The attack added fuel to arguments that Florida’s bear population had grown large enough to pose real danger.

The state receives about 6,300 bear-related calls each year, and officials had documented 42 incidents of physical contact with humans since the 1970s.

Only 52 Bears Were Killed

When the hunt ended on December 28, the numbers told a mixed story.

Only 52 of the 172 permitted hunters harvested a bear during the three-week season. That meant fewer than a third of permits resulted in kills.

Some hunters spent thousands of dollars on gear, travel, and preparation only to come home empty-handed. One father and son from Inverness bagged a 503-pound bear in the Panhandle after putting in 100 hours of research.

A Pensacola woman hunted for 23 straight days before finally shooting a 142-pound female. Most were not so lucky.

Wildlife Officials Declared Success

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the hunt worked exactly as planned.

Officials pointed to the conservative permit limits and the late-season timing as proof that the state had learned from 2015.

Executive Director Roger Young said Florida was proud to join the more than 30 states that manage black bears through regulated hunting.

The agency said it would use the 2025 data to inform future seasons and promised a full harvest report in the coming months.

FWC plans to make bear hunting an annual event.

Activists Have a Trial Date

Bear Warriors United lost every legal challenge before the hunt, but their fight is not over. A lawsuit filed in September 2025 is scheduled for trial in August 2026 in Tallahassee.

The case will include depositions of FWC officials as the group tries to block future hunts. Shadix said the low kill numbers prove bear hunting is unpopular with Floridians.

Conservation groups are also pushing to have the Florida black bear listed as threatened at the federal level, which would put an end to hunting entirely.

See Florida Black Bears at Ocala National Forest

The Ocala National Forest in central Florida is one of the best places to spot black bears in the wild.

The 607-square-mile forest sits within the state’s North Bear Management Unit and provides prime habitat for the estimated 4,000 bears living across Florida.

Visitors can hike the Florida Trail or drive forest roads at dawn or dusk for the best chances of a sighting. The forest is open year-round with no entrance fee.

Bears are most active in spring and fall when they forage for acorns and palmetto berries. Keep food secured and give bears plenty of space.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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