Black Bears Settling Into Orange County Neighborhood

Several black bears are settling into a busy Orange County neighborhood. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission believes the family wandered over from the St. John's River and now it's asking the local community to help the bears find their way back home.

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Officials believe the bears are after trash left lying out in front of people's homes near Curry Road and Dean roads. They're urging people to keep it indoors, at least until pick-up day, thinking it will send the bears back into the woods.

When a 300-pound bear came lumbering through his front yard, Dan Myers couldn't resist pulling out the camera.

"It seemed lost, bewildered," he said.

In Orange County's Waterside subdivision, it seems everyone's had an encounter with one of several bears, who started making their appearance there just last week.

"He's come to my backyard three nights," said homeowner Maria Patillo. "He went up to the back door, with his nose up to the back door, like, 'Hello? Anybody home?'"

Fish and Wildlife officials said the amount of encounters between people and bears has risen steadily over the last 25 years, as both have increased their populations in Florida.

The number of reported encounters went from just six in 1984 to 143 in 1994 and more than 1,500 in 2004. Fred Boller represents the agency's first response to any widespread reports. Tuesday, he went door-to-door to educate homeowners about their new neighbors.

"That's one of the main reasons this bear's been coming around here. It's easy pickings," Boller said.

If Boller can convince neighbors to put away garbage and keep pet food inside, he believes the bears will disappear on their own. If it doesn't work, experts said, they'll only get more comfortable with time, forcing the agency to trap them, relocate them or as a last resort euthanize them, a step no one in the subdivision seems to want.

"I don't want him hurt," Patillo said.

There's never been a documented bear attack in Florida, but there have been a steadily increasing number of car accidents involving bears and families in the Waterside subdivision worry their pets could be in danger.