CENTRAL FLORIDA — 9 Investigates bear and human encounters after a Lake County homeowner took video of a bear that broke into his back porch last week.
There has been a 100 percent increase in the number of encounters since 2009, WFTV reporter Christopher Heath found out. But as Heath discovered, state rules do not allow much room to relocate a bear.
DeLand homeowner Kerri Floryance shot video of a bear in her yard, and she said her neighbor also spotted the same bear in her backyard.
"He's got a limp. A very bad limp and he's got a crooked jaw," said Floryance.
Her home is not far from the Ocala National Forest. She and her neighbor said they have never had any problems with bears, just with the injured one.
"How often do you see this bear come around?" Heath asked.
"It was every day. Towards the end of the week, it is every day when there is trash," she said.
DeLand resident Jason Floryance said, "When we call Florida Fish and Wildlife, they send somebody out, but it was four, four and a half hours later they came out."
But Florida Fish and Wildlife will not remove the bear.
In an email to 9 Investigates, the agency said unless the bear is a threat, sick, a cub, has defeated an electric fence or is in an urbanized area and won't leave, it doesn't remove the animal.
Calls to FWC to report bear activity have increased dramatically in the last few years in central Florida, and part of the problem is that neighborhoods are not that far from wooded areas.
Floryance said the bear recently entered the family's garage, dragged the garbage can out, and then began to eat the trash.
"The bear was out just sitting in front of our garage," said Kerri Floryance.
With two small children, Kerri and Jason worry the bear may return while they are playing.
"A lot of neighbors think he's living in the woods next to us, which is kind of scary," she said.
WFTV
