We have bears in PA and NJ, although they are generally in the less densely populated parts. A cycling friend in NJ sees them in his back yard all the time, but he lives near some large parks.
Where I live in PA near Philly is so densely populated that when there's a bear sighting it makes the news. Usually animal control will shoot it with a tranquilizer and relocate it up into the Poconos. That's gotta be rough on the bear - waking up in totally unfamiliar territory wondering WTF just happened...
I don't know if it's always true, but what I've been told is if you see a reasonably large body of water in FL, you can pretty much assume there's at least one gator in it. That's different than up north where if there's a body of woods, we can assume there's deer, but no apex predators, or even opportunistic predators like bears. That's different than here in NH, where it seems we replace deer with turkeys. Turkeys are everywhere.
Ok I'm going to let y'all in on the biggest secret about Florida. The thing you need to know about Florida is it's a big scam to collect as much northern inheritance money as possible. See Grandma and Grandpa Northerner decide they want to move to Florida because well that's the thing to do. They see that things are so much cheaper than up north so they buy that brand new 3000 sq ft house and move on down. Once they move in they find that hourly people to take care of things is also way cheaper than it was up north so they hire locals to do all the things they used to take care of themselves plus they're getting older you know so it's nice to relax and let someone else handle it. What they don't realize is that all those blue collar workers that built the house and take care of them are charging double the local rate because hell they'll pay it. Now here's the best part. That money goes into our local economy and benefits us and our families. Grandma and Grandpa Northerner don't have kids or grandkids down here working their 40 hours a week so they don't get that to help their families. Added bonus is every generation the whole scam repeats.
Stampie, that's funny but true. I witnessed that same thing in Northern Wisconsin with the "FIBS" coming up I-43 to their escape to their vacation homes up north.
I lost in the state selection. Florida it is. She wants Tampa area but I am pushing for Lakeland area. And we will be moving just in time for the heat of summer. My son lived in Kissimmee for 8 yrs so I have an idea what I am moving to.
