PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — For the first time since 2015, Florida will have a black bear hunting season beginning on Saturday.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials approved the hunt in August. Animal advocacy groups strongly opposed it.

FWC officials say that regulated bear hunting “provides access to the resource and helps manage the population.”

“While we have enough suitable bear habitat to support our current bear population levels, if the four largest subpopulations continue to grow at current rates, we will not have enough habitat at some point in the future,” the FWC website states.

The season will run through Dec. 28 in four harvest zones, three of which are in the northern half of the state.

The only zone south of Interstate 4 comprises all of Collier and Hendry counties, as well as the portion of Lee County east of Interstate 75.

Aside from the one-off 2015 hunt, black bear hunting in Florida previously took place from the 1930s through 1994, according to the FWC.

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