Bear unhappy at school
October 31st, 2006 by admin
Students at Immokalee Middle School and Immokalee High School were treated to an unusual visit Thursday morning. The Naples Daily News reported that a 185-pound black bear visited the schools and ended-up hiding beneath a portable.
According to the paper, students were “excited. They thought it was cool,” but just to be safe the schools were locked down until Fish and Wildlife officers arrived. Wildlife officers described the poor bear as “very scared and very upset.” Thankfully, he was tranquilized and later released into a nearby wildlife area.
Black bears once roamed across the entire state. Today, the estimated 2,500 black bears in Florida are found mostly in the northeast. Although the number of bears is slowly improving, bear habitat is rapidly shrinking- leading to an increase in bear-human conflicts. Each year, dozens of bears need to be trapped and relocated. Bears are usually killed by wildlife officers if they return to the residential areas where they were removed, and if it is determined they have lost their natural fear of humans. In almost all cases, “problem bears” can be traced to people feeding the bears, either intentionally (which is illegal) or unintentionally (leaving cat food outside, failing to secure garbage cans or bird feeders).
Did you know? Except when mating or raising their young, bears are solitary animals. Scientists have determined that an adult male bear needs a range of 66 square miles to survive. A bear’s diet is mostly made up of berries, acorns, insects and palmetto hearts.