Florida wildlife officials released more information Thursday on the state’s first black bear hunt in 21 years.
The controversial hunt happened during a weekend in late October. Hunters killed a total of 304 bears. Opponents of the hunt worried it increased the number of orphaned cubs. But the state said the population is still healthy.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission numbers show 59 percent of the bears killed were female.
FWC’s Thomas Eason said about 21 percent of those were lactating.
“On average you would expect about 50 percent of females to be lactating… so we think hunters followed our rules and our rules did a good job of moving that harvest pressure off of females that may have had cubs,” he said.
It was legal to kill a lactating female over 100 pounds so long as she was not with any cubs.
FWC has stressed cubs are born around early February and could survive on their own by the time of the hunt.
But cubs normally stay with their mothers until around the next summer. Opponents of the hunt said it’s a sign the cubs still have more skills to learn.
FWC representatives did not confirm if they will conduct another hunt. But they said it was designed to happen yearly.
Read the FWC's report:
