With more than 100,000 permit applications submitted for a December bear hunt, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has reduced the number permits that will be issued — and the number of bears that may be killed — by 15.
After saying last month that it would issue 187 permits, the commission has reduced that number to 172, according to its website. A commission spokeswoman didn’t give an explanation for the decrease.
The decrease was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
The 23-day hunt is scheduled to start Dec. 6 and be held in four regions of the state. Permits will be issued through a lottery-style process, with people who receive permits each able to kill one bear. The commission has reduced the number of permits available in an area west of Jacksonville from 46 to 31.
The other quotas are 68 bears in the Apalachicola region west of Tallahassee; 18 in an area north of Orlando; and 55 in the Big Cypress region southwest of Lake Okeechobee.
As of Friday morning, 100,296 permit applications had been submitted. Permit applications, which cost $5 each, are being accepted online through the end of Monday.
People who are selected for permits will have to pay $100 if they are Florida residents and $300 if they are non-residents.
The conservation group Bear Warriors United this week filed a lawsuit in Leon County circuit court to try to halt the hunt.