I don't know how many people read this on CNN.

In the Ocala National Forest in Florida, near Lynne, the black bear are bald. Mange related to mites is prevalent in 60% of the black bear population (90% of the females). The illness is being passed to the cubs as well.

It is causing the bears to lose their hair. People describe them as looking like a huge, bald rat.

In the pictures I saw they looked like very ugly dogs.

The bears seem to have no other health problems and the game officials are taking no steps to treat the condition.

It would be nearly impossible to catch and treat all the bears for mange. And dangerous. They will just have to suffer through the infestation.

We caught a grizzly bear last spring and Nair'ed it. Looked pretty silly naked, and he seemed rather embarassed.

We didn't do this just for a lark. We were starting to develop the extreme sport of paint balling grizzly bears. Our first team went out last May, and haven't checked back in, so we don't know how it's going so far.

All they would have to do to treat the bears is leave food items baited with Ivermectin which is a systemic wormer/antiparasitic medication. It kills interneal parasites as well and lice and mange mites.

Commonly used in horses, dogs, etc. We used to bait chicken carcasses with it for the foxes and coyotes to keep the mange killed off. Coons and skunks also benefited form eating it as it cleaned them out too. It is very inexpensive. A dose for a very large horse (one ton) costs about $20.00.

Otherwise the bears could be left to fend for themselves and some will die from the parasite. The bad thing as it will infect more than the bears.

I think this is important, so... "BTT."

Good post, Ann.

Russ

I've seen coyotes that have mange so bad that the only hair they have is on the tip of their tails. In any kind of reasonably cold weather they surely must die of exposure.

Does anyone have a pic?