Stephanie Simek Quotations

People in bear country have to make sure to keep all sources of food cleaned up outside their homes. Bears home in on a free meal and they keep coming back.

We know that so long as the pressure on the habitat continues, we can't have populations continue to expand, but for the time being we're pretty sure that we do have expanding numbers in at least four areas around the state.

We think part of the increase in reports is just that people are more aware of bears and more inclined to report sightings, but there definitely has been an increase in bear numbers since hunting closed.

Florida bears are basically pretty shy of humans. If they see you, they're going to disappear most of the time.