Threatened

1974. Florida lists the black bear as a threatened species. Nobody has counted the bears of the Ocala National Forest. You are the state's bear manager, and you will never see the true number of bears: only your estimate, and its range.

Threatened is a free documentary simulation of wildlife management in the Ocala National Forest and the St. Johns River country, 1974–2012, built on the state agency's own record. Each year you divide a small budget between research, roads, garbage and habitat, and decide what to do with problem bears: relocate them, haze them and educate the neighbours, or euthanize repeat offenders. The record's events come on their dates, and four times it asks you a question it once answered: the listing of 1974, the end of hunting in 1994, the removal from the list in 2011, and whether the plan of 2012 keeps hunting as a tool.

Two voices, no winner. The title says it twice. The bear was listed as threatened; and for many people at the forest's edge, the bear in the garbage is what feels threatening. The game measures both: the residents' tolerance and the conservation side's confidence that the bear is secure. It never adds them up.

Your figures beside the agency's. At the end your road deaths, public reports and estimates stand beside the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's own series for the Central unit: 17 bears killed on the roads in 1990, 172 in 2012; 58 reports in 1990, 2,212 in 2010; a first scientific estimate of about 1,025 bears in 2002.

An epilogue to 2026. What followed is told, not played: the hunt of October 2015 (304 bears in two days), the votes against hunting in 2016 and 2017, and the hunt of December 2025 (172 permits drawn from 163,459 applications, 52 bears taken, five of them around Ocala). Each side is given in its own documents' terms. The 2026 season is still ahead; this edition will be reviewed and brought up to date.

Support this work. The game is free. If you found it useful, please consider a small donation through the Support button on this page.

• English; 30–40 minutes per game, plus the study and epilogue
• Nothing is stored and nothing is sent anywhere
• Sources: Florida Black Bear Management Plans (FWC 2012, 2019), FWC 2025 hunt report, US Fish and Wildlife Service (1998)