Black Bears in Florida

In my past five plus years at The New York Times, I've covered a lot of breaking news stories. Some have included animals and a lot of bears which seem to be a regular topic for me. 

I've writtten about fat bears in Alaska where there is an annual competition for people to vote for their favorite hefty bear. I've written about efforts to restore the grizzly bear population in the Northwest Pacific. I've also covered polar bears that killed a remote worker in Canada.

So I was surprised when I had to cover a story about man and his dog who were killed by a black bear in southwest Florida in May because bear attacks in the state are rare.  People also associate Florida with alligators, iguanas, dolphins and sharks but we do have black bears, about 4,000 of them and as my story noted, they can run up to 35 miles per hour and climb a tree in 30 seconds. 

Here is my story on the bear that killed an 89-year-old man, the first reported fatal bear attack in Florida history.

The authorities at the scene of a black bear attack in Collier County, Fla., in May.Credit...Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission via New York Times