Reports of black bears in the Florida Panhandle are not uncommon.

When the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office received a call of two bear cubs wandering along a roadway north of Crestview, Fla., that’s likely what deputies expected to find — even though the man who reported the bears said they didn’t look like black bears.

A deputy responded to the scene about 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 5, locating the cubs along Old River Road in the unincorporated Baker community, according to the sheriff’s office.

And the man who first spotted the cubs were right — they were definitely not the black bears common to Northwest Florida.

Instead, they were Kodiak bear cubs — a species native to Alaska, meaning the cubs were about 3,600 miles from their natural habitat. Kodiaks are a subspecies of the brown or grizzly bears and considerably larger, with males growing to an excess of 10 feet tall when on its hind legs and weighing up to 1,500 pounds.

In comparison, male Florida brown bears weigh between 250-450 pounds, according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The Alaska Department of Fish & Game says Kodiaks “live exclusively on the islands in the Kodiak Archipelago and have been isolated from other bears for about 12,000 years.” There are an estimated 3,500 Kodiak bears living in the wild.

So how did two end up in Florida — about 100 miles east of Mobile?

In the video posted by the sheriff’s office Wednesday, deputies can be heard speculating they may have “come from the zoo.”

Investigation determined, however, that the cubs had instead escaped from an “inadequate” enclosure located on property belonging to a “self-proclaimed bear trainer” on Old River Road.

The man, who was not identified, is facing numerous Florida wildlife violations.

The sheriff’s office said it did not release the video or information until the FWC investigation was complete.

The cubs were “friendly” and appeared healthy to the sheriff’s office. In the video, they can be seen calmly interacting with the man who reported them and the deputy who responded to the call.

They were turned over to the FWC and transported to a secure location.