A pair of bear cubs, members of the Kodiak subspecies of grizzly bear, were spotted on a Florida roadside more than 3,600 miles from their Alaska habitat.
The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office released on Facebook this week body-camera footage of a deputy arriving on the scene after a Baker resident spotted the bears and called.
“They was right here, I stopped right here and called the sheriff’s department … there’s a zoo somewhere close by. … They’re completely friendly,” the initial caller told the deputy as seen on the video, which was taken in the early morning hours of Dec. 5.
The caller, Zach Richards, also pointed out to Deputy Amanda Baliel that the two cubs were not Florida’s native black-bear species, according to the Miami Herald.
Are those grizzly bears!??? (Audio Up!) An Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy certainly wasn’t expecting what she found when answering a call in the Baker area around 3:30 in the morning December 5th. A man had spotted two bear cubs on the side of Old River Road and said they didn’t appear to be our common Northwest Florida black bears. Turns out he was right. These cubs were technically about 3,614 miles from what would normally be “home” - in Alaska. They are apparently Kodiak cubs, a unique subspecies of the brown or grizzly bears, although Kodiaks are larger. Thankfully this pair was friendly and appeared healthy. The OCSO contacted the bear experts, Florida Fish and Wildlife, who made sure the cubs were transported to a secure location for safekeeping while they conducted a thorough investigation into how they came to be on the side of a road. It was determined the bears had escaped from an inadequate enclosure at a residence on Old River Road where a self-proclaimed bear trainer lives. The resident faces various Florida wildlife violations related to the findings of the FWC investigation. We opted not to share the video until after their investigation was closed. • According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game “Kodiak bears are a unique subspecies of the brown or grizzly bear and in the wild live exclusively on the islands in the Kodiak Archipelago and have been isolated from other bears for about 12,000 years. • There are about 3,500 Kodiak bears; a density of about 0.7 bears per square mile. • Kodiak bears are the largest bears in the world. A large male can stand over 10’ tall when on his hind legs, and 5’ when on all four legs. They weigh up to 1,500 pounds. Females are about 20% smaller, and 30% lighter than males.”
Posted by Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) confirmed the two cubs were Kodiak bears, part of a subspecies only found on Alaska’s Kodiak archipelago, which the sheriff’s office said lies 3,614 miles from Baker.
The subspecies has been genetically isolated for about 12,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age, and is the largest bear species in the world, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
FWC took the cubs to a secure location and found that they had escaped from an enclosure along Old River Road in Baker, where a self-proclaimed bear trainer lives, the sheriff’s office said.
The commission has charged the trainer with several unspecified wildlife-related violations. The sheriff’s office did not name the trainer and did not say whether the violations were criminal or civil.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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