Binge-Eating Black Bear Passes Out in Yard

Don’t tell Goldilocks, but it appears that black bears have a bigger hankering for dog food than ordinary porridge. At least that was the case in Lake Mary over the weekend.

A homeowner there called in a trapper after she found a huge bear fast asleep in her backyard, according to WFTV. It seems the bear snagged the bag of dog food from a garage and brought it into the woman’s yard for a snack, promptly passing out after gorging itself. When the trapper arrived, he decided the creature was too big for his tastes, but he did snap some photos.

The Seminole County incident wasn’t the first one this year where a Florida black bear helped itself to available food. Back in April, another hungry critter made headlines for breaking into an Estero home to swipe Easter candy. The bear in that case, however, didn’t pass out. Instead, he just made “slobbering noises and bear noises,” according to homeowner Caroline Tidwell.

See Also:

• Black Bear Invades Florida Home for Easter Candy
• Black Bear Hunt Decision Reached by State

While dog food and candy held the bears’ interest in those two incidents, human and bear encounters have been on the rise in the Sunshine State. In June, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission made the controversial decision to open a limited hunting season for black bears.

The state outlawed black bear hunts in 1994 when the population of bears in Florida dwindled from an estimated 11,000 at the turn of the 20th century to less than 500 in 1974. With the black bear population once again above 3,000 and encounters between people and bears becoming more frequent and violent, however, the commission began reconsidering its rules.

In 2012, the commission took black bears off the state’s threatened species list and put a management plan in place. Even so, wildlife officials have been flooded with calls related to black bears in recent years and there have been several serious attacks in the past year.

Bear complaint calls to wildlife officials have risen dramatically in recent years. In 1990, the commission fielded 99 complaint calls. In 2014, that number rose to 6,312, down slightly from the 6,667 fielded in 2013, the agency noted.

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