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Bear Takes A Dip In Orlando Hotel's Swimming Pool

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 28, 2008

Updated: 05/28/2008 02:55 pm

TAMPA - To the untrained eye, the big lump of fur lumbering around the pool area at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando could have been a drunken, fur-coated rock star stumbling about on all fours. But the keen eyes of security recognized it for what it was early this morning.

There was a Florida black bear near the pool, oh, my, and it wasn't a refugee from the Country Bear Jamboree at nearby Walt Disney World, either. This was a genuine bruin from the wilds of Orange County.

The hotel, situated in the Universal Studios theme park, has plenty of deep, dark woods nearby, and wildlife experts say that's likely the bear's home and that it probably crashed the hotel property, looking for a territory to call its own.

Security guards at the park reported seeing the beast near the Hard Rock Hotel pool at dawn this morning. They notified the Orlando Police Department, which sent officers to the scene to get to the bottom of the ursine situation.

Since then, the bear pretty much has toddled out of sight.

"You need to call the wildlife people," Orlando police Sgt. Barbara Jones said. "It's not a police matter."

Hard Rock officials declined to comment and referred questions to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"At first, there were reports of two bears in the pool, but that wasn't true," commission spokesman Gary Morse said. There appeared to have been just one bear, a 65- to 85-pound fellow described as a cub.

"This is the time of year the family units are breaking up," he said. "The mama bears are kicking out the younger cubs, and that's what we think we've got here, a younger cub trying to find its own territory."

A commission biologist and two officers were stationed at the park all day to monitor the situation, he said. "It might be gone. It could have moved on through here without us knowing it."

He said the officers will remain there until they determine the bear is gone or they capture it. The officers are not hunting the wayward animal, he said.

"One thing we don't want to do is actively go looking for this bear," Morse said. "That situation could cause more problems than it would solve. The bear gets nervous, starts moving around, and it could move into an area where there are people or get out into traffic and cause an accident.

"Urbanized wildlife," he said, "always presents certain problems for us."

He said there is a healthy bear population in and around the woods near Orlando, and sightings are not uncommon, even though this report was the first so close to a theme park.

Universal Studios remained open throughout the day.

"It was business as usual," Morse said.

The beast is no cause for concern, said commission biologist Sara Sillars, who specializes in the study of bears.

Sillars, based in Ocala and whose district includes Orlando, said early today that she was not shocked the bear put in a hotel guest appearance.

"Disney and Universal are surrounded by a lot of wild land," she said. "It does not surprise me, and it's getting hot, and bears are looking to cool down somewhere," and the Hard Rock Hotel might have looked like a tempting spot.

The area presents a sharp juxtaposition of the quiet solitude of a Central Florida forest and the bustling tourist mecca that is Universal Studios. Theme Park Insider, a Web site that features all there is to know about, well, theme parks, said there is no dearth of people there. Universal ranked 11th in the world for theme park attendance last year, drawing more than 26 million guests, and many stayed at the popular Hard Rock Hotel.

With the woods and all those people rubbing up against each other, bear sightings in that part of the state are a regular occurrence, Sillars said.

"We mostly have gotten reports of sightings in orange groves," she said, "or that they were just wandering around and somebody just happens to see them."

The Florida black bear is the only kind to call the Sunshine State home. Adult females range from 150 to 250 pounds, and males can tip the scales at 350 pounds, Sillars said.

The bear posed no real threat to Hard Rock guests, she said.

"We don't consider them to be an immediate threat," Sillars said. "They are docile and nonconfrontational. We've never had an attack in Florida. We encourage people to stay away from them, and if they see them in their yards to just scare them off by making a lot of noise."

The commission urged anyone who comes into contact with any bear to not approach, feed or chase it.

People should allow it room to escape and call the commission's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-3922.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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