PANAMA CITY — A bear that had been captured and relocated twice in Panama City since April was euthanized Monday night by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission after it was captured a third time in Shalimar.
Spokesman Stan Kirkland said they had run out of options.
“This bear had a real bent on coming back into urban areas,” he said. “There wasn’t anything else we could do.”
The 350-pound adult male was caught April 14 in a tree on Clay Avenue in Panama City and relocated 90 miles east. Mud Swamp in the Apalachicola National Forest .
He returned to the same neighborhood — this time on Fairland Avenue — three weeks later, apparently swimming across St. Andrew Bay to get there. He was captured again and brought to the Eglin Air Force Base’s reservation, Kirkland said.
He reappeared Monday at the Shalimar Yacht Basin, where he spent the day.
Officials used a dart gun and crash bags to get him out of the tree about 9 p.m. Monday. He was taken to a different location to be euthanized and buried, Kirkland said.
It may have been the bear’s second visit to the area in a matter of days.
Louis Pecheny said he woke up Saturday morning to a bear with a tag on each ear at the door of his home on Garnier Bayou, right across Choctawhatchee Bay from the yacht basin.
“He was pretty,” he said. “I’m just sorry they had to kill him.”
A second bear had to be euthanized early Tuesday after it was struck by a car on U.S. 98 in Mary Esther.
The adult female had been relocated to Eglin’s reservation Saturday after appearing in Panama City Beach at daylight down by the beach.
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michele Nicholson said a report of severely injured bear in the eastbound lanes came in just after 1 a.m.
After consulting with an FWC biologist, deputies euthanized the bear.
The car that hit her has not been located, Nicholson said.