Lab results have connected one of three black bears killed by wildlife officers in Collier County to a fatal attack on a man and his dog a day earlier, officials said Friday.
Necropsy results revealed that a 263-pound male bear contained the partial remains of 89-year-old Robert Markel, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement.
Testing showed that same bear’s DNA was present on Markel's body, inside his home and on the dog’s body.
FWC officials have not explicitly said that bear is the one that killed Markel, but a preliminary autopsy by the Collier County Medical Examiner found that Markel's cause of death is consistent with a bear attack.
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It would be the first such bear attack death in the state.
Markel was attacked early Monday near his home in Jerome, a rural community east of Naples, just south of Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area.
Wildlife officers set several traps and cameras. They killed three black bears in the area and sent the remains to a Gainesville lab.
None of the animals tested positive for rabies, officials said.
Wildlife officials are still investigating the events that led to the attack.
The FWC statement said there were signs of recent disturbances that could have been caused by a bear or bears around Markel's property. His remains were found approximately 100 yards from his home.
Investigators noted evidence indicating a physical encounter between a bear and a person near the residence, a dog recently killed by a bear in close proximity to the person, and signs that a bear had entered the residence.
The exact sequence of events remains unclear.
FWC policy outlines how the agency should respond when faced with situations that require the removal of a bear for public safety. In this case, officials said, each of the three documented circumstances required lethal removal. FWC officials said the agency does not make that decision lightly.
From Monday evening into early Tuesday morning, FWC personnel lethally removed the three adult male bears, weighing 207, 263 and 434 pounds. The FWC said there was an unsuccessful attempt to trap a fourth bear; however, DNA evidence was collected.
The three carcasses were immediately transported to Gainesville, along with DNA samples collected from physical evidence at the scene.
FWC law enforcement and bear management staff stayed in contact with Markel's family and maintained a presence near the property from Monday to Friday. During that time, they observed only one bear in the area, which briefly appeared late Thursday.
The FWC said law enforcement and bear management staff will remain throughout the weekend.
"We want to thank the family for their cooperation as they navigate this challenging time, and our thoughts remain with them," FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said. "I am proud of our staff's professional response and support for the family as they faced an unfathomable event this week."
Jerome is in the South Bear Management Unit, which has the third largest population of bears in the state, estimated at 1,044 in 2015. Demographic analysis indicates this population has a positive annual growth rate.
Florida’s black bears, which were once threatened, have increasingly wandered into neighborhoods and private property in recent years, especially in more rural areas of north and central Florida.
The FWC received 16 bear-related calls within a 10-mile radius of nearby Copeland between May 5, 2024, and May 4, 2025, resulting in five site visits, five capture efforts, three bears that were relocated and hazed, and one bear that was humanely killed.
While it is rare for wild black bears to injure people in Florida, people have been bitten and scratched by bears, most often when there are cubs, food sources or dogs present.
The FWC receives an average of 6,300 bear-related calls annually and has documented 42 prior incidents where wild black bears have made physical contact with people since the 1970s, when comprehensive records began being kept. Of those, three resulted in serious injuries requiring medical attention prior to this incident.
Twenty-eight of those encounters involved a person with a canine present, the FWEC statistics showed.
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