Florida is luring bears with donuts so it can count them

Dunkin' Donuts uses donuts to lure humans, so perhaps Florida's new approach to counting bears shouldn't sound so bizarre.

Wildlife authorities in Florida are placing the sweet pastries around the state in "counting stations" to assess how many black bears are roaming around. In order to get to the donuts placed in the middle of these stations, bears have to rub up against barbed-wire corrals, which capture fur for DNA testing. (Officials swear the bears aren't harmed.) Researchers will then use the resulting data to see if the bears need to be moved to areas where they won't harm humans.

Officials think the number of bears in the state has "greatly increased" from the last count, which was 3,000 in 2004. The study's results will be ready in about a year.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up