FLORIDA, U.S. (352today.com) – The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced yesterday that the application window for the 2026 regulated bear hunting season will open at 10 a.m. EDT on Friday, September 11, 2026.
You must be at 18 years old (or turning 18 by October 1) to apply for a permit and have a valid Florida hunting license unless exempt. Like last year, you can apply as many times as you want at $5 per application plus handling fees. Permits are distributed by random drawing.
Last year—the first year the State of Florida opened a bear harvest since 2015—nearly 15,000 individuals submitted more than 163,000 applications for 172 available permits, so, you know, may the odds be ever in your favor.
A maximum of 10 percent of available permits will be issued to nonresidents.
The permit, obviously, is required to harvest bears in any of the four Bear Harvest Zones during the season, which will run December 6-23 this year. The Bear Harvest Zone that covers the largest portion of the 352 is the Central BHZ, which includes parts of Sumter, Marion, Alachua, Bradford, Clay, Putnam, Lake,
Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Flagler, and St. Johns counties, as well as plenty of wildlife management zones that will be open to hunting during the season.
Come Sept. 11, hunters can submit their applications online at GoOutDoorsFlorida.com (you should have an account if you’ve got a valid license) through the “Apply for Limited Entry/Quota Permits” link. You can also submit an application worksheet and present it to a license agent or tax collector’s office.
More information on the application process is available here.