Black bear killed on Panhandle highway taken to 'graveyard'

The massive black bear killed on a Panhandle highway in April was taken to a "bear graveyard", one of several around Florida where state game officials place bears struck by vehicles.

The 600-pound bear may be the third largest recovered in Florida, the state Fish and Wildlife Commission said.

Only a 635 pounder killed by a hunter in Volusia County in 1945 and one killed on a highway in Collier County in 1988 that weighed 624 pounds were larger, said Stan Kirkland, a game commission spokesman.

The bear was healthy and was just coming out of its winter dormancy when bears in Florida tend to spend most of the time in their dens but don't go into hibernation.

With scarce food during the winter, black bears in Florida can lose 25 percent of their weight.

It might have broken the record had it been struck in the late fall when the bear would have packed on another 50 to 70 pounds in preparation for winter, Kirkland said.

The male bear apparently was struck by a large vehicle around 11 p.m. April 23 on U.S. 27, two miles west of the Lamont community east of Tallahassee. A truck driven by Teresa Anderson of St. Petersburg then struck the bear in the roadway, causing her truck to wreck.

Neither Anderson nor her passenger, Goliath Davis, was injured, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The bear had never been tagged as a nuisance animal by wildlife officials, Kirkland said.

At 600 pounds, the bear was an extremely large specimen. Male black bears in Florida generally weigh 250 to 450 pounds and females range from about 125 to 250 pounds.

The record for a female is 400 pounds. The bear was killed by a vehicle in Liberty County in 2007.

Actually, the term graveyard is a misnomer. Bears killed by cars around the state are placed on top of the ground in locked, secured areas.

"We let nature take its course," Kirkland said.

Because the black bear is a threatened species in Florida, it is illegal for the public to possess any part of a bear.