Now that the latest state-sanctioned bear hunt is over, some observations are in order.
–It was a bear hunt not a bear “harvest.” These are living creatures not oranges,
–The fact that only 52 bears were killed is not surprising. Unlike the earlier hunt, which was a free-for-all, this hunt involved a limited number of permits, some of which were snatched up in a guerilla campaign by Sierra and other groups.
–It seems likely that even among the people who actively tried to kill a bear they may have been unsuccessful because bears are not that numerous and may be hard to find unless you have some staked out as occurred in the earlier hunt.
–The rationale for the hunt was always questionable because the hunt areas were mostly areas with little growth pressure
–FWC was secretive about how the hunt was going, which aligns with the general way information is withheld from the public under the DeSantis administration.
–The FWC reportedly will present a report on the hunt results sometime later this year. It is unclear whether that delay is needed to make sure they have good data or to figure out how to spin it to enable the next hunt.