Bear contractors needed for Lee and Highlands counties

Wanted: Bear contractors.

Must have flexible schedule, vehicle able to haul small trailer, clean criminal history and people skills.

Because Lee and Highlands counties are experiencing an increase in human-bear conflicts, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is seeking a contractor to assist in trapping bears, retrieval of carcasses resulting from vehicle collisions and community outreach.

"You don't have to have any kind of degree," said Mike Orlando, FWC assistant bear management program manager. "But you need to be a good, straight, honest person who wants to work hard for the agency and is interested in the outdoors and bears in particular.

"And you have to be good with people. We'll train you to deal with bears, but you have to have people skills. Fifty percent of the problem between people and bears is people, so you need to be able to talk to people to see if there's anything they can fix."

FWC has divided the state into seven Bear Management Units. Lee and Collier counties are in the South BMU, which contains the state's second-largest bear population, 516 to 878, compared to the Central BMU, with 825 to 1,225.

From 1990 through 2010, the South BMU ranked fourth in human-bear conflicts with 1,444. the Central BMU ranked first with 15,558, followed by the East Panhandle BMU with 3,705 and West Panhandle BMU with 3,584.

Human-bear conflicts include a bear digging through trash, walking through a yard, destroying crops, threatening or attacking humans or domestic animals.

In Lee County, human-bear conflicts are on the rise.

"Lee County is the north end of the Big Cypress area, and you have bears moving down from Highlands County and up from the Big Cypress," Orlando said. "We're seeing them in Lee County, Punta Gorda and Hendry County."

In all, FWC has 20 bear contractors, including two in Collier County.

Unlike Florida's licensed alligator trappers, who keep alligators they trap and sell the meat and hides but aren't paid by FWC, bear contractors are paid:

• $100 to pick up a bear carcass that's been killed by a vehicle (from 1990 and 2010, 147 bears were killed by vehicles in the South BMU).

• $100 for a site visit, which is when the contractor responds to a call from the public and assesses the situation before reporting to FWC. Site visits also include talking to homeowners about such anti-bear strategies as securing garbage and pets.

• $300 to trap a bear.

"Let me tell you, the amount of time and energy and money contractors save the state when our biologists don't have to break off what they're doing to do a site visit is worth the effort and time," Orlando said. "We have a really good crew across the state. They're really helping us out."

How FWC officials and contractors handle a human-bear conflict depends on the situation.

"It's case by case," Orlando said. "If a bear is just wandering around in a front yard or getting in somebody's garbage, we might not do anything. If it rips somebody's door off and breaks into a house, more than likely, we'll catch it and put it down."

Human-bear incidents have increased statewide from 99 in 1990 to 6,688 in 2014, and in the past 11 months, bears have attacked four people, three in the Longwood area north of Orlando, and one in Eastpoint in the Panhandle.

"We're definitely experiencing an elevation in human-bear conflict situations," Orlando said. "That's why we're hiring more contractors. We're being more aggressive with bears and with people."

Bear contractor applications

Send application to:

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Naples Field Office

Attn: Area Bear Biologist

298 Sabal Palm Rd.

Naples, FL 34114

Or applications and requests for more information to Casey.Gray@MyFWC.com or by fax to 239-417-6361.

Applications must be submitted by March 16 and include a resume and at least three professional references and telephone contact numbers.

Applicants must have the ability to work flexible hours, a vehicle capable of hauling a small trailer and a clean criminal history with no fish or wildlife law violations.