UWF Researchers Compile Bear/Vehicle Collisions Data for State Wildlife Officials

UWF Researchers Compile Bear/Vehicle Collisions Data for State Wildlife Officials Pensacola – Vehicles have killed more than 200 bears each year in Florida since 2012, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That is a marked surge from 1990 when crashes were responsible for only 33 bear deaths. Bears have become more common in recent years in suburban and urban areas as development around bear habitats has picked up and the state’s population has grown. Florida’s number of black bears has risen from about 300 in the 1970s to over 4,000 today while the state’s human population has risen from 6.7 million in 1970 to 20.3 million in 2015, according to the FWC. Ray Eslinger, who graduated from the University of West Florida last fall, and Dr. John Morgan, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UWF, have produced research that could help state wildlife officials curb those collisions in the future. Cont