Photo c/o Tampa International Airport
After FWC’s two failed attempts to tranquilize the bear, it entered the trap set up at Tampa International Airport.
Tampa International Airport said it removed a Florida black bear from the airport campus today, adding that it has no previous records of bear incursions on airport property.
Late Tuesday night, a TSA employee spotted the bear walking along the airport perimeter fence near Hillsborough Avenue, according to airport officials. The sighting was reported to Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.
“The Airport, in conjunction with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, immediately set up a trap and a robust perimeter around a dense area of vegetation at the north end of the campus to keep the animal contained,” airport officials added.
Several agencies did an overnight watch, with Tampa Police using its infrared camera to confirm that the bear slept inside the airport perimeter overnight.
After FWC’s two failed attempts to tranquilize the bear, it entered the trap. The incident did not disrupt air travel or pose a risk to employees, the airport said.
The FWC has relocated the bear to Central Florida, which may or may not have been its final destination.
In some ways, we shouldn’t be too surprised. Orlando has the Lake Eola bear, and another bear recently swam up onto a beach in Destin. Last month, the FWC told Floridians to be on the lookout for juvenile bears leaving their mothers' home ranges and finding territory of their own.Here's video of the Florida black bear that was removed from Tampa International Airport today. Photo of it inside the trap via @cl_tampabay: https://t.co/MK1DkcMaJe pic.twitter.com/H1gReZOyE3
— Ray Roa (@rayroa) June 14, 2023
Molly Lippincott, Senior Curator of Florida and Marine Life at ZooTampa agreed, but told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that she’s also never heard of one at the Tampa airport.
“That's definitely unique and interesting,” Lippincott said. “But it's just one animal so it's not it's not something where you're we're having tons and tons of bears coming in.”
Bears, she pointed out, are opportunistic feeders and will go towards places where food is easily accessible—and return. As development encroaches on animal habitat, it’s up to humans to take measures to protect their homes and the bears by utilizing bear-proof trash cans, removing bird feeders if bears are present in the area, keeping your distance when you see one in the wild, not approaching a bear in any capacity, and never feeding them either.
“Their general demeanor, they want to not to be near people, they're pretty skittish and want to keep their distance,” Lippincott said. “But any animal can get scared, and that can be a different story.”
She called the airport bear’s trapping relocation the best possible scenario. A bad outcome would be having the bear come back, and worse, become a danger to themselves or to people. Lippincott's exhibit at ZooTampa is home to two such nuisance animals. “Ideally, we want them to have a long term home out in the wild,” she added.
“I think the fact that it got to go back, obviously to where it should be is fantastic and it will probably be successful,” Lippincott said. “I would imagine it just got kind of lost along the way.
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UPDATED 06/15/23 4:15 p.m. Updated with comment from Molly Lippincott, Senior Curator of Florida and Marine Life at ZooTampa.
