Ahh, the sights and sounds of a beautiful Florida evening. A man, a black bear, and a grappling match in the doorway of a screened-in porch, what else could you ask for?
There’s lots of animals competing for press in the Sunshine State but one that bumbles around the forests that people tend to forget is the black bear. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife, there are around 4,050 black bears in the state, and despite the warmer climate, some can grow to enormous sizes, the largest on record being a 760 pound male found in Seminole County back in 2015.
But most are not nearly that size and the one we see in this video is a smaller fella, which is fortunate for Walt Hickox because he went toe to toe with it to protect his wife and dogs.
It was January in Daytona Beach, the best time to be in Florida when the weather is 70 and sunny every day while the rest of the world shivers through snowstorms and cloud covered skies, but things went from perfect to perilous when he went to let his dogs out one particular night. No sooner did he walk out on his porch than a black bear burst through the doorway, perhaps looking to snag his little pup for a late night snack, and this Florida Man reacted like only a Florida Man would react.
He lowered his level and shot toward the bear, pushing it back with authority while fighting through bites and claws, all in the name of protecting what mattered to him.
Hichox spoke to WFTV9 about the incident:
“Not a lot went through my head at the moment, other than what’s going to happen if he gets past me and into the house where the rest of my dogs and my wife was at.”
At the end of the exchange he was victorious. The bear scampered off and Walt avoided serious injury, although he was treated for the bite marks and rabies.
There’s two important lessons to be learned here:
One – Keep your small dogs away from black bears. Two – Never, I mean never, mess with a Florida Man.
