Kodiak Bear Cubs Native To AK Found On FL Panhandle Road: Watch

OKALOOSA COUNTY, FL — A deputy responded to an unexpected call in the early morning hours of Dec. 5 - two Kodiak bear cubs, native to Alaska, were found roaming Old River Road in the Baker area of the Florida panhandle. (Watch bodycam footage of her interacting with the bears below.)

“These bear cubs were technically about 3,614 miles from what would normally be ‘home’ - in Alaska,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.

A man called the sheriff’s office just before 3:30 a.m. after finding the curious cubs wandering around the side of the road.

In the deputy’s bodycam footage, as she arrived she’s heard saying, “Well, hello. Where in the world?”

The man told her that while he didn’t know where the bears came from, he thought there was a zoo somewhere nearby.

“They’re friendly. They want to check out everything,” he said, adding later, “The big one’s a little bit pushy. They want food. They’re clearly domesticated.”

Both the man and the deputy agree that they’re not the black bears typically found in Northwest Florida.

“They’re brown or grizzly; they’re not black bears,” he said.

The bears were friendly with both the man and the deputy and didn’t hesitate to inspect her patrol car.

“Oh crap, don’t tear up my car please,” she said. “They’re climbing on my car.”

Speaking with dispatch, the deputy said, “It’s like they’re not afraid of people, ‘cause they’ll walk right up to ya and let you pet ‘em. They’re very curious.”

“I would be terrified that mama would be around the corner,” the dispatcher is heard saying.

“That’s why I’m back in my car,” the deputy said.

“The shenanigans at 3:30 a.m.,” the dispatcher responded.

The deputy said, “Not the call I was expecting, for sure.”

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission took the bears, who were healthy, for safekeeping.

Investigators learned the cubs escaped from “an inadequate enclosure” at the home of “a self-proclaimed bear trainer” near where they were found, the sheriff’s office said.

The trainer faces various violations from the FWC.

Watch the deputy’s bodycam footage of the bears: