Water-rescued bear spotted again, taken to wildlife refuge

A big black bear pulled from the gulf and freed in the forest is too brazen to stay wild, biologists said Wednesday.

It will go to a zoo, instead.

"The only alternative was to euthanize the bear," said Tim Breault, director of the Division of Habitat and Species Conservation at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "This is not a pleasant decision for us to have to make, but it is what happens when people feed bears or other wildlife."

Wildlife Rescue and Rehab Inc. agreed to take the bear Wednesday morning. It was being kept at the Hardee County Animal Refuge, according to the FWC.

The 7-foot, 375-pound bruin was spotted most recently on Monday, lumbering through a residential area at Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County - some 110 miles from its last release point in the Osceola National Forest.

Captors initially didn't realize they'd caught the same bear from the gulf rescue story.

The bear, known by FWC as "Bear W007," had been released in the forest after a neighborhood sighting at Alligator Point in June. At that scene, FWC workers shot it with a tranquilizer dart to subdue it, but instead it headed into a street - where it was scared by cars - before dashing into Alligator Harbor.

FWC biologist Adam Warwick said he knew the bear wouldn't survive the four-mile swim across the harbor. He went into the gulf for the rescue; the bear panicked and stood up before tipping backward into the water, where Warwick kept its head above water and towed it to shore.

Warwick later appeared on CBS, CNN and Fox News to discuss the rescue. He received three marriage proposals and earned nicknames such as beastmaster, the bear whisperer and the hunky biologist.

Authorities blamed easy food access - garbage cans, barbecue grills, pet food and sometimes deliberate feeding - for the bear's proclivity to populated areas.