▶ Watch Video: Bear cubs native to Alaska found on Florida road
A Florida deputy came upon a strange sight when responding to a recent call in Baker County at 3:30 in the morning.
A man said that he spotted two bear cubs on the side of the road that didn’t look like black bears native to the area. When the deputy arrived on scene, she met the man and the bears, who were looking to explore.
“They want to check out everything. They’re completely friendly,” the unidentified man can be heard saying.
Video shared by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office shows the encounter, including the bears approaching the deputy and man, and climbing on their cars.
The deputy and man both speculated that the animals were brown bears or grizzly bears. According to the sheriff’s office, those thoughts were correct: The animals were Kodiak cubs, a unique subspecies.
They’re also native to Alaska – which meant the cubs found by sheriff’s office were about 3,614 miles away from home.
The deputy contacted Florida Fish and Wildlife, who were able to transport the cubs to a secure location for safekeeping. The agency also launched an investigation into how the cubs came to be in Florida. The sheriff’s office said that they chose not to share the video of the encounter, which happened on Dec. 5, until the investigation was completed.
Florida Fish and Wildlife determined that the bears had escaped from “an inadequate enclosure at a residence on Old River Road where a self-proclaimed bear trainer lives,” according to the sheriff’s office. That resident, who was not identified by the sheriff’s office, now faces “various Florida wildlife violations” related to the investigation’s findings.
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the bears live exclusively on the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska, and have been isolated from other bears for over a millennium. There are about 3,500 such bears in the area. Kodiaks are larger than brown or grizzly bears, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and male bears of the species can be over 10 feet tall when standing on their hind legs.
