It’s been quite a wild last few weeks for the citizens of suburban South Florida… literally!
Last week, I wrote about the floods all along the Atlantic coast of the Sunshine State contributing to a shark (or tarpon) sighting on the wet and wild streets of Fort Pierce.
Multiple vehicles are stranded due to flooding along US-192 in West Melbourne, Florida, on Nov. 2, 2026. (Craig Bailey, FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK)
Now, on the west coast of Florida, a video has emerged of an animal challenging motorists that feels more at home on an inland road than a scaly sea monster.
Folks in the Gulf coast city of Naples, FL, got quite a show this weekend when a black bear, seemingly lost on his way back to the woods, darted across a busy access road that runs adjacent to Interstate 75.
The footage shows a clearly confused black bear running around a busy street in a fairly densely populated area.
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A black bear in a suburban neighborhood. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Naples has a reputation as a retirement town, but the metropolitan area that it sits in is home to about 400,000 people, so this isn’t exactly a backwater part of the country where the citizens and wildlife coexist as one.
Another thing I can tell you having been to the area several times is that large sections of I-75 butt right up against the Florida Everglades, so there is a good chance this poor little guy wandered a little too far from home and ended up playing real-life “Frogger.”
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Black bear on road at Mount Rainier, Wash. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
As more and more people flock to the Sunshine State from other states and countries, the cities keep developing further and further inland, and in the southern part of the state, that means developing on top of the Everglades.
The more this happens, the more we will see videos of our friend here running scared through the streets of the suburbs, which could be dangerous for both the bears and the human population.
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Here’s hoping Mr. Ursus Americanus Floridanus made it back to the ‘Glades in one piece and that no one was seriously injured.
Austin Perry is a writer for OutKick.
