Rescued bear causes trouble again, moved to zoo

HORSESHOE BEACH --  A troublemaking black bear will not be euthanized, and he has FWC biologist Adam Warwick to thank for his life. Again.

Last month, Warwick hauled the tranquilized bear to shore after it ran for the Gulf of Mexico in the Panhandle. Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials were trying to relocate it because the bear was getting too close to people, hanging around stilted houses in the neighborhood. They shot it with a tranquilizer but feared it would drown trying to swim to escape.

On Monday, about two weeks later, they found it 110 miles from where Warwick and a colleague re-released it in the Osceola National Forest in a residential area in Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County.

Usually, the FWC follows a three-strikes rule for dealing with bears. On the third time they're found near people, the agency considers them unfit to live in the wild, where they're free to come into contact with people and could pose a threat.

But this bear, who wears the tag W007, was a national news story, so the FWC called about 20 zoos. It found a home for him at the Hardee County Animal Refuge.

“The bear has learned that populated areas are an easy source of food from garbage cans, barbecue grills, pet food and, in some cases, deliberate feeding by residents,” said Tim Breault, director of the FWC’s Division of Habitat and Species Conservation. “The potential threat to human safety from
this bear is too great to allow it to continue to venture into populated areas. This is not a pleasant decision for us to have to make, but it is what happens when people feed bears or other wildlife.

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--Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer

Photo by Becky Bickerstaff, courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission