In the communities around the Ocala National Forest, in Florida, bears overturn garbage cans, walk through porch screens, raid bird feeders and jump up and down on Dumpster lids to scrounge food - especially during the fall, as bears prepare to hibernate and their food intake doubles.
More than 1,100 complaints about bears have come into the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWC) Ocala office so far this year. The source of the bear problem is often a matter of trash management. If one person in a neighborhood puts out garbage the night before a morning trash pickup in a bear-populated area, bears may continue to raid garbage cans.
When bears become too much of a nuisance, they're trapped, tagged and moved. If they break into a house or chase someone for food, they are captured and killed. This year, 11 aggressive bears have been captured and euthanized in the 12-county area that includes the Ocala National Forest, the largest of eight bear-populated areas in Florida.
No hunting of bears has been allowed in Florida since 1994. The state's bear population is recovering from decades of hunting; according to estimates, there are now 2,500 to 3,000 bears in the state.
"We've been working so hard to get bears back. Now we have a good population of bears and a lot of people who have never been around bears before," said Mike Orlando, assistant coordinator of the FWC's bear management program. "It's hard to resist leaving out food. But once you get a bear going down that path, it usually leads to its demise."
It's illegal to put out trash, birdseed or other sources of food that attract bears and create a public nuisance. An exception is wildlife feeders in the woods.
Bill Persons enjoys spending time at a hunting lease called Seminole Woods. He sees bears often while hunting the land near the Wekiva River west of Sanford. Sometimes he sees them roaming, other times bears eat the corn dispensed by his game feeder, a mechanical device with a timer that hangs from a tree.
Last week, Persons invited me to Seminole Woods to see a bear that had been visiting his game feeder. I arrived on a Wednesday afternoon, changed into camouflage clothing and readied my camera. Persons took me to a tree blind positioned near his game feeder.
I was in luck. With the feeder in front of me and the wind in my face, the bear was not likely to detect my scent. Perched 3m above the ground in the tree stand, I waited, listening to falling acorns, the hooting of barred owls and the distant rumbling of motorcycles.
Then, at 6:05pm, a lump of black fur walked softly into the clearing below Persons' game feeder. The bear seemed totally relaxed. I wasn't. Thrilled to see a bear in the wild and realizing the light available for photos was dwindling, I raised my camera and started clicking.
The bear noticed me, sensed something was wrong, stood up on its hind legs, spun around and scampered off into the thicket. I managed to shoot three photos.
Some 30 seconds after my camera spooked the bear, the game feeder started slinging corn. The bear's timing was impeccable. It knew when to arrive for a snack.
I climbed from the tree stand and waited for the bear to return. It did, but by then it was too dark for photos. I could hear the bear crunching corn. When I walked toward the clearing with my camera, the bear vanished.
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