Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom experienced partial closures on Monday, September 18, after a bear was spotted within the park.
According to CNN, eleven separate rides were closed as of 11:17am, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Tom Sawyer Island, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise. It’s not clear which of those eleven rides were closed due to the animal sighting.
“In most cases, it is best for bears to be given space and to move along on their own, but given this situation, staff have captured the animal and are relocating the bear out of the park to an area in or around the Ocala National Forest.” – Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
Ariel footage showed that the adult female bear was captured and removed from an area near the “it’s a small world” ride, and the closures relating to the animal have since been lifted.
“We are working with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and have made the decision to reopen Frontierland, Liberty Square and Adventureland at Magic Kingdom Park.” – Disney
Black bears are the only species of bears known to live in Florida. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there are somewhere around 4,050 bears in the Sunshine State. That’s just one black bear for every ~16.2 mile. Maine, for comparison, has the most black bears of any of the 48 contiguous United States, has one black bear for every ~0.88 miles.
Florida is nowhere near the state with the least black bears, either. There are several states (including Hawaii, obviously) which have had no recent reporting of black bears, and a few who’s populations sit well under one thousand (Ohio, Alabama, Nevada, Louisiana, Connecticut). The bears of Florida have been spotted in a multitude of different habitats, including swamps and flatwood.
_-_Jasper_National_Park_02.jpg){kind=link}
Related: Party Crashing Black Bear Takes A Swipe At Pennsylvania Man
Featured Image Credit: Backattaxk251, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
