iStockphoto / Mandy Fuller Photography
A boater in Naples, Florida was flabbergasted when they entered Royal Harbor and witnessed a black bear prowling around a luxury catamaran.
The video, which has since gone viral, was filmed by TowBoat U.S. operator/owner Todd Dillman. He’d dropping off a barge that called for his services and was headed back to the dock when he spotted the black bear making itself at home on the luxury catamaran docked in the Naples Sailing and Yacht Club.
Black bears aren’t unheard of in Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife and Conservation Commission estimates there are up to 4,000 black bears in Florida. With that said, they are typically concentrated to the ‘wildlife corridor’ of South and Central Florida and not often found on the coast.
Dillman’s video also made its way to YouTube and the local news:
Dillman told Wink News “I thought I had seen it all in my line of work,” Dillman said. “Snakes, gators, saltwater crocs, sharks … never in a million years did I think I would see a bear.”
It might be time for some Floridians to reorganize their brains when it comes to how they think about bears. Earlier this Summer, a black bear swam up to a crowded beach in the Florida Panhandle with people all over the water.
A few weeks later, a three-legged black bear broke into a family’s porch fridge. It then drank 3 White Claws before going about its business.
The point I’m trying to make here is that with rapid development in Florida amounting to habitat loss for bears, encounters will be significantly more common in the coming years. I’m a born and raised Floridian and I’ve never seen a black bear in the wild. I suspect that will change in the very near future based on the the spike in encounters.