Lakeland Police got six 9-1-1 calls in quick succession starting at 6:47 a.m. Monday reporting a black bear roaming the Shore Acres neighborhood.
An AlertPolk text message went out to area residents at 7:20 a.m. urging caution around Shore Acres Drive and Holly Road. Over the next nine hours, LPD and wildlife officials set up several perimeters and tracked the bear with drones and binoculars.
Bear on the move: The young-looking bear moved through backyards and brush, and sometimes walked down the middle of the road. It visited at least two businesses on Gary Road, took a nap in a backyard on Holly Road, and then ran down Interlachen Parkway past a playground to Elm Road, South Dixie Place and Casco Street. Officials eventually lost sight of it in a thickly wooded area along Longfellow Boulevard across the street from Lake Bonny.
Where is the bear now? At 4 p.m., the bear was well-concealed on the fringe of 96 acres of undeveloped land east of Longfellow Boulevard between Lighthouse Baptist Church and Express Food Mart. Three Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission units monitored the general area but did not know exactly where the bear was.
Slideshow: See the bear
A screenshot from a security camera shows the bear strolling past the back door of a home on Holly Road. | Courtesy of Rebecca Carney 
The bear appears to be fairly young, according to FWC officers. | Cindy Glover, LkldNow 
The bear scopes out a backyard on Holly Road. | Courtesy of Rebecca Carney 
A security camera caught the bear in front of a home on East Elm Road. | Courtesy of Missy Blair-Conatser 
The bear is photographed through a screen passing a bird feeding station on Interlachen Parkway. | Courtesy of Gordon Stevens
How did the bear get here? FWC Bear Management Coordinator Mike Orlando said juvenile black bears between the ages of 1½ and 2½ often turn up in unexpected areas during the spring and summer as they leave their mothers’ home ranges in search of places of their own. Another bear was spotted two months ago near the Lake Gibson Publix.
Seeing a bear in an urban or suburban neighborhood isn’t necessarily cause for alarm, but he said it’s important to remove any food sources so they don’t linger. It is illegal in Florida to intentionally feed bears. About 95% of Florida black bears’ diet is fruits, grasses, leaves and insects. The small meat portion usually comes from scavenging, not killing, according to the FWC.
Close encounters
Around 7 a.m., Maria Quiñones was using a leaf blower to clear the parking lot outside Nance’s Flooring Inc. on Gary Road when she looked up and was startled to see the bear right in front of her. She said she dropped everything, cracking her cell phone screen, and ran inside. The equally startled bear ambled across the street, settling behind a State Farm office.
At 7:08 a.m., Rebecca Carney’s large calico cat woke her by meowing frantically by the window. Carney, who lives on Holly Road, checked her backyard camera and saw the bear. Throughout the morning, she posted updates on the 863 Crime Watch Facebook group.
“At one point, the bear walked out the driveway, looked both ways and walked straight down Holly Road,” Carney said.
Carney’s neighbor, Brad Compton, was drinking his coffee on his front stoop when he saw the bear. Compton said he has lived on Holly Road for 40 years and has never seen a bear in the neighborhood or anywhere else in Lakeland.
“The poor little guy seemed lost, like maybe he took a left instead of a right,” Compton joked.
Slideshow: FWC officers track the bear
FWC officers monitor the bear as it naps in Rebecca Carney’s backyard. 
An FWC officer uses binoculars to monitor a bear napping in a backyard on Holly Road. 
FWC officers walk through the Shore Acres neighborhood looking for the bear. 
Three FWC patrol units monitor site on Longfellow Boulevard where the bear was last seen. | Photos by Cindy Glover, LkldNow
Why didn’t the wildlife officers catch it? There were many times throughout the day when the bear was in plain view and theoretically could have been shot with a dart gun. But FWC patrol officers explained that the drug needed to sedate a bear is a Schedule 1 narcotic and can only be dispensed with a special license. Field officers don’t carry it, so they have to call for a biologist.
Next steps: FWC spokeswoman Hailee Seely said bears will often move out of populated areas on their own if given space. That’s the ideal outcome. But if necessary, officers may trap the bear or arrange for it to be tranquilized. If captured, Seely said officers would relocate it to an FWC Wildlife Management Area.
Who owns the forested land? The 96-acre parcel where the bear was last seen is just outside Lakeland’s city limits. Southeastern University owns the southernmost 12 acres. Foxdale Management Inc. owns the middle 55.5 acres. Legend Properties Inc. owns a 20.4-acre parcel above that. The northernmost 8.2 acres abutting Main Street is owned by John Bean Technologies Inc.
Most of the land is zoned “commercial,” but Lakeland officials noted that it is on a floodplain. That makes development difficult, but not impossible.
Could the bear stay where it is indefinitely? Not likely. While 96 acres seems like a lot, it’s only .15 square miles. “The home range of adult Florida black bears can vary from an average of 15 square miles for adult females to an average of 60 square miles for adult males,” according to Floridabear.org.
To learn more: The FWC website has a distribution map showing where bears most commonly live in Florida and an interactive map showing bear calls it has handled statewide.
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