Florida has seen the controversial return of legal black bear hunting for the first time in a decade, as hunters armed with rifles and crossbows began fanning out across the state's swamps and flatwoods on Saturday, despite vocal opposition from conservation groups.
The state-sanctioned hunt, the first since 2015, drew an overwhelming 160,000 applications for a significantly smaller number of permits. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ultimately awarded 172 bear hunt permits through a random lottery, allowing each successful applicant to kill one bear in areas deemed to have sufficient populations.
