Florida wildlife officials have found the remains of the state’s first fatal bear attack on a human inside one of the bears they killed in the aftermath of the attack.
Robert Markel, 89, of Jerome in Southwest Florida’s Collier County was attacked about 100 yards from his home on Monday. His dog was also killed nearby, and DNA from the bear that killed Mr. Markel was found on his pet, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a release Friday.
From Monday night into Tuesday, FWC personnel trapped and killed three adult male black bears weighing 207, 263 and 434 pounds. The partial remains were found in the 263-pounder, whose DNA also matched that found on the dead dog.
Jerome is near the over 700,000-acre Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area, in a bear management area that had a population of 1,044 when measured in 2015.
FWC got 16 calls from people in a 10-mile radius of Copeland, Florida, 3 miles from Jerome, between May 5, 2024, and Sunday. Prior to Monday’s fatal attack, FWC had recorded 42 prior incidents of physical contact between people and black bears, with three resulting in serious injury.
The most recent bear incident in Collier County happened in 2018, per the FWC data.
