304 bears killed in shortened Florida hunt

Hunters killed 304 Florida bears in last month's hunt, including two taken illegally, according to a review of raw data provided by the state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Harvest numbers were up slightly from figures the FWC provided the day the hunt ended because the original tally did not include illegal kills and four other bears turned in after check stations closed.

Most bears were killed on private land. Hunters on private land killed 237 bears.

Bear-hunt foes had argued hunters could cheat easier on private land, ambushing bears accustomed to raiding deer-feeders that were illegal on public land.

The total fell short of the wildlife agency's statewide kill quota of 320 bears, though hunters exceeded limits in two regions, the eastern Panhandle and Central Florida, an area that includes Lake, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties. The final figures show 143 bears killed in Central Florida, 85 on private land.

FWC had set a harvest limit of 100 bears in Central Florida, an area with an estimated 1,300 bears, the state's largest subpopulation of bruins.

Hunters were most successful in Marion County, where 55 bears were killed, followed by Lake County where 36 bears were killed.

The week-long hunt was cut to two days because hunters were more successful than FWC had anticipated.

The largest bear killed weighed 547 pounds.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "304 bears killed in shortened Florida hunt ."