Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — After just two days, Florida ended its controversial black bear hunt because a higher than expected number of bears had been killed. 
  
 Wildlife authorities said late Sunday that 295 bears taken overall, nearing the official limit. 
  
 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission posted a statement on its website saying it had closed the 2015 hunt because it was approaching an agency "objective" of 320 bears overall. 
  
 "The 2015 bear hunt is officially over," the statement said. 
  
 Wildlife officials had already shut down hunting in designated central and east Panhandle regions of Florida after the first day Saturday. The statement late Sunday said additional North and South units were closed to hunting after the second day, meaning hunting had ended in all four "bear management units" were it was allowed. 
  
 Authorities say they weren't alarmed by the numbers, saying the figures suggest the bear population is higher than they thought. The hunt was approved earlier this year after considerable and contentious debate. Backers estimated Florida's black bear population had grown to 3,500 — from a few hundred in the 1970s. But opponents challenged those numbers. 
  
 More than 30 states allow bear hunting in some form, officials said. 
  
 Earlier Sunday, the agency's executive director, Nick Wiley, told The Associated Press the agency closely monitors the numbers of bears taken and was already leaning toward ending the hunt after two days. 
  
 The agency's subsequent statement late Sunday said the agency "took a conservative approach ... building in buffers so the number of bears harvested would stabilize growing populations while ensuring a continuation of healthy bear numbers." 
  
 Officials shut down the central and east Panhandle regions after the hunt's first day Saturday. They said 112 bears were killed in the Panhandle region at last count, nearly triple the 40 kill limit for that area. In the central region, 139 bears were killed, it said. The agency's statement added that 23 bears were taken in the North unit at last count and 21 bears in the South unit before those final two areas were closed Sunday to hunting. 
  
 "From a biological sustainable population perspective, none of these numbers are worrisome to us, we have large growing bear populations," said FWC's Thomas Eason, speaking Sunday before the overall hunt had ended. 
  
 More than 3,200 hunters purchased permits to participate, including 1970s rocker Ted Nugent and Liesa Priddy, a rancher and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission member who voted to approve the new hunts. 
  
 Backers of the hunt said growing numbers of bears presented a safety problem, as close encounters with bears made headlines in recent months. Activists have argued that the state should instead focus through other means on curbing nuisance bears and assuring safety through trash management and other means. Opponents of the hunt staged protests around the state over the weekend. 
  
 Officials set up 33 stations where hunters were required to record each kill within 12 hours, with some of the last stations to remain open until noon Monday. Hunters were prohibited from using dogs or bait to lure the bears, and could only kill bears weighing more than 100 pounds, among other restrictions. Among the weapons allowed: shotguns, bows, pistols, revolvers and crossbows. ||||| Florida wildlife officials, who closed bear hunting in Central Florida after one day, shut the whole thing down Sunday. 
  
 “We started this with harvest objectives that were very conservative and very mindful that we were doing this for the first time in 21 years and there were uncertainties,” Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, said at a Sunday afternoon press conference. 
  
 The hunt was scheduled for seven days, and FWC had allowed for 320 bears to be killed. 
  
 After two days, 295 were dead. Of these, 139 bears were killed by hunters in Central Florida, 112 in the eastern Panhandle, 23 in the northern region and 21 in the southern region. 
  
 The FWC put a stop to the hunt Sunday as the total reached the 320 limit and plans to use information gleaned from this year’s hunt for future management efforts, according to spokeswoman Tammy Sapp. 
  
 Bear hunting in Florida resumed again on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015 after the state had prohibited it for years. State wildlife officials issued nearly 3,000 permits to hunters despite ongoing protests by some who say it is inhumane to shoot and kill bears. 
  
 Saturday, sharp-shooting hunters exceeded kill quotas in two of the four areas where hunting was allowed, including the Central region that includes Lake, Orange, Seminole and Volusia counties. 
  
 The kill limit for the region was set at 100. 
  
 “None of these numbers are worrying to us,” said Thomas Eason, a wildlife biologist nicknamed “Dr. Bear” who serves as director of FWC’s division of habitat and species conservation. “We have large, resilient, growing bear populations.” 
  
 But the death toll alarmed Chuck O’Neal, organizer of the Lake Mary-based conservation group Speak Up Wekiva, which sued FWC and pushed the wildlife agency to stop the hunt, or at least stop it early if the kill limits were met. FWC originally planned for the statewide hunt to last at least two days — regardless of the number of bears killed. 
  
 Bryan Smith of Lake County killed one of the first bears during Florida's bear hunt. Smith killed a male bear around 7:50 a.m. on Saturday. Bryan Smith of Lake County killed one of the first bears during Florida's bear hunt. Smith killed a male bear around 7:50 a.m. on Saturday. SEE MORE VIDEOS 
  
 Hunters could have killed 500 bears or more if Speak Up Wekiva hadn’t pressured FWC, O’Neal said. 
  
 “It saved the state from its disastrous [hunting] policy,” he said. 
  
 Diane Eggeman, FWC’s hunting director, admitted Sunday the wildlife agency had underestimated the rate of hunter success but pointed out the high harvest total also may suggest that the black bear population is larger than the current estimate of 3,500. 
  
 “The more bears you have, the more likely you are to succeed,” she said. 
  
 The Florida black bear was listed as a threatened species until three years ago. 
  
 Wildlife officials said they had no reported injuries to any of the 3,778 hunters who bought permits to kill a bear. 
  
 One hunter was cited for killing an underweight bear, a 42-pound cub in the eastern Panhandle, said Major Craig Duval, the head of FWC’s law-enforcement division. He said a hunter in Central Florida was warned because he brought in an 88-pound bear. 
  
 Bears weighing less than 100 pounds are presumed to be cubs. 
  
 Duval said FWC officers also are continuing investigations into instances of leaving bait to attract bears, which was not permitted under the state hunting rules. A hunter in Central Florida was cited for baiting, said Duval, who did not identify the hunter or provide other details. 
  
 FWC attributed the high bear kill to good weather, savvy hunters and unsuspecting bears. 
  
 “We have bears that haven’t been hunted in 21-plus years here in Florida so they’re relatively naive,” Eason said. “I also think we had a lot of hunters who went out and did a lot of scouting and were ready.” 
  
 As the bear population fell, Florida stopped hunting bruins in all but two counties in 1972. All bear hunting ended in 1994. 
  
 Wiley said he didn’t anticipate much criticism from hunters for calling off the hunt. 
  
 Florida hunters paid $100 for a permit, out-of-state hunters forked out $300. Total sales reached over $376,900, said Sapp. 
  
 “I think most of them will understand,” he said. 
  
 The bear hunt ended after Saturday in Central Florida and in the eastern Panhandle, where hunters bagged 112 bears — nearly three times the kill quota. 
  
 Those two regions by far had the most hunters, with Central Florida attracting an estimated 2,000. 
  
 At Rock Springs Run Wildlife Management Area, a hunting area that touches parts of Orange, Lake and Seminole counties, a group of about 30 people held a vigil Sunday across from a tag station where bear hunters brought kills to be checked. 
  
 “The real raw fact of the matter of losing these bears is devastating to many of us in the community,” said Emily Ruff of the Florida School of Holistic Living, who participated in the ceremony. “Our primary concern is to honor and pay respects to the wildlife that’s been lost in this hunt...I feel in large part the public feels betrayed by the state for allowing this to take place.” 
  
 Hunters on Sunday were allowed to pursue bears in two areas of the state — a northern region that included an area stretching from Suwannee County west of Interstate 75 to the Atlantic Ocean, and a southern region ranging from the west coast of Fort Myers in Lee County across Alligator Alley to West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. 
  
 Volunteers with Speak Up Wekiva, who photographed bears brought into many of the 33 check-in stations, described several of the dead animals as “lactating females.” The state rules allow hunters to kill female bears, but forbid taking a bear with cubs. 
  
 The agency’s bear-hunting guide advised hunters to “observe a bear for a while before taking a shot so that you can confidently estimate its size...Taking your time also helps make sure that an adult female doesn’t have any cubs with her as cubs often don’t show themselves right away.” 
  
 Eason said bear cubs are generally born in February, emerge from the den in the early spring and, after eight months or so, “they’ve learned all the skills they need to be able to survived on their own...We knew there were going to be some [orphaned] in the harvest.” 
  
 Despite Eason’s assurances, O’Neal said his group was concerned about the hunt’s hidden toll: wounded bears that scrambled away to die; bears that were killed but not reported; and orphaned cubs that will starve or otherwise not survive alone. 
  
 “It’s worse than they think,” he said. 
  
 shudak@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6361 |||||
Output:
Hunters hoping to take advantage of Florida's weeklong bear hunt—the first in 21 years—have had to shoulder their rifles after just two days. "I have signed the order to close the hunt," Nick Wiley of the state's wildlife commission said Sunday after 295 bears were killed. The number is likely to rise as hunters have 12 hours to report their kills. Wiley said the max limit of 320 bears would likely be exceeded with another day of hunting, adding, "We'd rather err on the conservative side." Still, the number of dead bears did exceed limits in specific areas. Some 112 bears were killed in the eastern Panhandle in the first day of hunting, though the limit was set at 40. Hunters in Central Florida felled 39 more bears than the area's limit of 100. "The bears haven't been hunted in 21 years, so they're relatively naive," says the commission's bear expert. Wiley hailed the hunt as a success, but not everyone was pleased. Opponents warned that the loss of too many animals would be devastating to a population—estimated at 3,300—that was only recently scratched off Florida's imperiled-species list. A rep for the Sierra Club, which opposed the hunt, said the limitless hunting permits sold may have "set back the recovery of the bears for years, if not decades." The public was generally against the hunt: About 75% of the 40,000 responses received ahead of the commission's vote on the hunt this summer were against it. However, 3,779 hunters, including Ted Nugent, were eventually issued licenses, which earned the state $376,900, per the AP and Orlando Sentinel. Officials are now investigating possible hunting violations and say one hunter has been charged after shooting a cub.