‘Spare a bear;’ Sierra Club asks activist to enter Florida bear hunt lottery

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is opening permit applications for the first bear hunt in a decade.

Beginning Friday at 10 am, the FWC will take applications online for a lottery-style drawing.

187 permits will be issued via the random lottery, and some animal rights groups are asking activists to enter.

According to FWC rules, once the hunting season begins, bears can be hunted in 4 zones across the state, including public land in Central Florida.

The Sierra Club is now putting out instructional videos asking people to get their hunting license and enter the lottery for a permit.

“Our people are not going to use those bear permits. It’s going to be one more bear’s life that will be protected,” said Savannah Randolph, the Florida Chapter Director for the Sierra Club.

Applications for a bear permit cost $5 and an individual can enter the drawing as many times as they want to increase their chances, though if selected, each hunter is allotted only one bear.

The FWC says the hunt is needed to effectively manage the bear population and balance the number of species with suitable habitat.

According to the FWC, the black bear population went from several hundred in the 1970s to over 4,000 today.

However, the Sierra Club says the FWC is using 10-year-old data to justify the hunt. Randolph worries the state could see a repeat of the last hunt in 2015.

At the time, Channel 9 reported nearly 300 bears were killed in just two days. The week-long bear hunt was cancelled, and FWC officials acknowledged the agency “underestimated the hunter success for the first day.”

“As bad as it was in 2015, we expect it to be even worse this time,” said Randolph.

FWC says during the last hunt, an unlimited number of permits were issued, with the bear hunt ending once the season harvest quota was met.

The new lottery system process is meant to ensure a healthy population is maintained.

According to FWC, the number of bear permits issued this year and for future years is “determined annually based on hunter success rates as well as known population and mortality data.”

“The goal is, when we set a quota for any species, to reach that goal. If we are not reaching that goal, then we make adjustments usually in tag allocation, to reach that goal for future years,” said George Warthen, FWC Chief Conservation Officer.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said permits for the 2025 hunting season in Florida will open on Sept. 12 and close on Sept. 22.

The bear hunt season will last 23 days total, beginning December 6th.

Applications can be submitted online at GoOutdoorsFlorida.com or in person at a license agent or Florida tax collector’s office.

More information on the application process is available at MyFWC.com/License under ‘Limited Entry and Quota Permits.’

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