Note: This story was updated at 8:55 a.m. Feb. 3, 2024, with a link to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game fact sheet on the Kodiak bear.

BAKER, Fla., Jan. 31, 2024—An Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy certainly wasn’t expecting what she found when answering a call in the Baker area around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 5.

“Not the call I was expecting, for sure,” said Deputy Amanda Baliel.

A man spotted two bear cubs going for an early morning stroll along the side of Old River Road.

“They were right on the side in the ditch,” he said. 

According to the man, the bear cubs didn’t appear to be common northwest Florida black bears. Turns out he was right.

The cubs were technically about 3,614 miles from what would normally be “home”—in Alaska.

They were apparently Kodiak cubs, a unique subspecies of the brown or grizzly bears, although Kodiaks are larger.

Thankfully this pair was friendly and appeared healthy. 

“They’re completely friendly,” said the man who called OCSO. “They want to check out everything.”

“It’s like they’re not afraid of people because they’ll come walk right up to you and get you to pet them,” said Baliel who responded to the December call. “They’re very curious.”

The sheriff’s office contacted Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission bear experts who made sure the cubs were transported to a secure location for safekeeping while they conducted a thorough investigation into how the cubs came to be on the side of a road.

An investigation revealed the bears had escaped from an inadequate enclosure at a residence on Old River Road where a self-proclaimed bear trainer lives.

The resident faces various Florida wildlife violations related to the findings of the FWC investigation.

The sheriff’s office opted not to share information about the cubs until after their investigation was complete.

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Kodiak bears are a unique subspecies of the brown or grizzly bear and in the wild live exclusively on the islands in the Kodiak Archipelago and have been isolated from other bears for about 12,000 years.

There are about 3,500 Kodiak bears; a density of about 0.7 bears per square mile.

Kodiak bears are the largest bears in the world. A large male can stand over 10 feet tall when on his hind legs, and 5 feet when on all four legs. They weigh up to 1,500 pounds. Females are about 20 percent smaller and 30 percent lighter than males.

Staff and Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office news release