Lab tests connect black bear killed by Florida wildlife officers to fatal attack on man and his dog

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JEROME, Fla. (AP) — Lab results have connected one of three black bears killed by wildlife officers in southwest Florida to a fatal attack on a man and his dog a day earlier, officials said Friday.

Necropsy results revealed that a 263-pound (119-kilogram) 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.

Wildlife 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.

Markel was attacked early Monday near his home in a rural area 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 their 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.

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.