Alaqua Animal Refuge looks to help protect black bears, educate public with new sanctuary

FREEPORT — Florida black bears will someday have a new home at the Alaqua Animal Refuge, with funding earmarked for a sanctuary at the refuge’s new 100-acre facility.

The Florida Panhandle has the second largest black bear population in the state at about 1,180, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s last count in 2015. But there are not many sanctuaries for large, native species like bears in the area.

Impact of rural development:Black bear sightings in busy areas of Florida Panhandle highlight impact of rural development

Black bear killed on U.S. 98:Young black bear found dead along U.S. 98 on Okaloosa Island after being struck by car

With more black bears being displaced from growing development in rural areas, Alaqua founder and President Laurie Hood said the refuge hopes to not only help house bears that can’t be released into the wild, but to educate the public on their plight.

“I can’t tell you what it does to my heart when I see these bears that are stuck. The one stuck in the middle of Destin and the one in Mary Esther that had gotten hit by a car,” Hood said. “It’s just so heart-wrenching to see these animals stuck in these situations.”

Videos posted to social media in recent weeks have captured several black bears in places they normally wouldn’t venture. One bear was recorded getting into the water and roaming around The Track, an amusement park in Destin, on June 13.

In a June 17 interview, Shelby Proe, wildlife director for Alaqua, said the unusual sightings can likely be attributed to loss of habitat and bears searching for food, with recent housing developments being built in traditionally forested areas.

While the FWC is responsible for managing interactions between humans and bears, Alaqua gets one to two calls a month from people concerned about bears in their neighborhoods.

“It’s a truly important area to kick off this educational aspect for them because it’s so important, and it’s only going to get worse,” Hood said. “The more we develop, the more they lose their home, and we’ve got to figure out how to peacefully coexist with them.”

More about Alaqua's new facility:Haven for rescued animals: New Alaqua refuge has village for cats, wildlife rehab center

About 50 acres of the new facility on State Road 20 east of Freeport will be home to rescued wildlife that can’t be rehabilitated sufficiently to be returned to their natural habitat. The bear sanctuary will likely take up a few acres of that space.

The exact specs for the sanctuary are still up for determination as the first phase of development continues.

Hood said supply chain issues have caused delays in construction, but once the domestic animal facilities are complete, focus will shift to the wildlife side.

“My goal with the sanctuary is to have some sort of an educational aspect to it,” Hood said. “There’s a lot of bears that have been born into captivity or can’t be released back into the wild that are being rehabilitated. So it’s going to be an alternative to a zoo.”

The educational aspect of the enclosure will be key. Hood plans to model some of the space off of an exhibit at a zoo in central Florida, where interactive features such as an outdoor grill and bird feeder demonstrate the hazards of leaving food unsecured. 

A little over 30% of calls to the FWC in the Panhandle regard bears sifting through garbage cans or other trash. Bears dependent on an unnatural food source are more likely to frequent residential areas, and are often injured or killed.

Conserving wildlife:How to help conserve Florida wildlife as sea turtles, manatees become more active this spring

“FWC tries to push, they call it a BearWise community, which means that the community adopts the correct trash cans and they educate people on securing their trash,” Hood said. “So the bears, when they pass through, they don’t try to stay and become used to being around people all the time.”

Securing garbage has been proven to minimize the number of bears lingering in communities and cut down on encounters, Hood said.

By pushing that message at the sanctuary, she hopes to help solve some of the problems that have come with increased human-bear interactions.

“We want to create an exhibit like that that would show the bears in their natural habitat, but have this extremely important message behind it for our tourists that visit, as well as our locals that live here, on peacefully coexisting with the bears that we forced out of their homes,” Hood said.

The project is expected to cost upward of $1 million, with significant costs going into safety features. Over $100,000 has already been earmarked for the project after a couple donated a 2008 Cruisers Yachts 460 Express boat to be auctioned off late last year.

Alaqua operates solely on private donations and continues to collect donations for the bear sanctuary. Donations can be made by visiting https://alaqua.org/. Donors will need to note that the contribution is for the sanctuary.

“I would love to sit down with anyone that has any interest in working with the program or making a donation so we can get this going sooner rather than later. It seems pretty important,” Hood said. “I’m really hoping that we can make a difference by creating this educational aspect for them.”