Hunt lasts one day, removes 20 bears

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OAKLAND, Md. -- Hunters in Western Maryland bagged 20 black bears yesterday in what was the beginning of the state's first managed hunt in 51 years to cull a growing bear population in the region. Calling the one-day harvest rate "overwhelming," and expressing concern that allowing the bear hunt to continue a second day would exceed the 30-bear limit, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) ended the hunt late yesterday. More bears may be registered today, the DNR said. The deadline to have bears at a check station is 4 p.m. "While we regret any inconvenience, our first responsibility is to manage Maryland's natural resources, and we were concerned that opening the hunt a second day would put us over our conservative harvest target of 30 bears, and potentially jeopardize future hunts and black bear management opportunities," said Paul A. Peditto, director of the wildlife and heritage service for DNR. The hunt was scheduled to last six days. Officials with said the black bear population is estimated at 500 and that such a hunt is needed to reduce human-bear conflicts. There were 17 highway deaths of bears in Maryland this year. The hunt began at dawn in Garrett and Allegany counties west of Evitts Creek. DNR's black bear project manager and biologist Harry Spiker said the 30-bear limit is being enforced to control the bear's population growth. "It was a management hunt," Mr. Spiker said. "We have a high density of black bears in Western Maryland. It's time to slow that population down." State officials said yesterday that 381 persons were participating in the hunt, including 183 permit-holders chosen by lottery, 149 companions and 49 landowners who could join teams hunting on their property. Baiting is prohibited during the hunt. The first kill was claimed by David Ciekot, a freelance outdoors writer from Cambridge, Md. Mr. Ciekot, 35, said he downed the bear just after dawn with a 40-yard rifle shot through the lungs from his 15-foot tree stand on private property near Friendsville in Garrett County. "I'm pretty proud to bring the first one in," said Mr. Ciekot, who writes an outdoors column for the Salisbury Daily Times newspaper. Mr. Ciekot was accompanied by his hunting companion, Arthur Meilhammer, 47, also of Cambridge. State wildlife officials said the bear Mr. Ciekot shot was a female probably 10 months old. It weighed 84 pounds and measured 49 inches long. Mr. Ciekot said he probably will mount the bear. State officials required each hunter who killed a bear to check in at one of two stations where DNR staff weighed and tagged the carcasses and collected DNA samples from the animals. The two check-in stations are at the DNR Mount Nebo work complex north of Oakland and the Maryland State Highway Administration's salt dome in Frostburg. For the first kill at the Oakland station, a DNR staff member cut open the bear, took out its vital organs, and extracted its premolar tooth, which later will be analyzed to determine the bear's age. The staff member also collected a blood sample. The procedure took more than an hour. Early in the day, Hunter Sheridan Green, of Oakland, bagged a 114- pound male bear in Potomac State Forest in southeastern Garrett County; a 150-pound female bear was turned in at the Frostburg station; and a 98-pound female bear was turned in at Oakland. Animal-welfare and environmental activists had been objecting to the hunt since it was proposed. They dispute the state's population estimate of 500 bears, compared with a handful in the 1950s. They also disagree with the DNR's assertion that the hunt is needed to reduce human-bear conflicts. Pierre Grzybowski, grass-roots coordinator for the Fund for Animals, said hunt opponents did not hold a protest but they were there photographing and videotaping the dead bears. "We are just documenting with photographs ... the pain and suffering of these individual animals," he said. The Fund for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States, two groups that lost a legal battle to stop the hunt, held an hourlong candlelight vigil Sunday night at the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis, seeking an 11th-hour "reprieve" for the bears. The Ehrlich administration lifted a ban on hunting the once-scarce animals in Maryland. More than 7,000 anti-hunting messages had been received since February, said Karina Blizzard, associate director of Maryland's Wildlife and Heritage Society. As a precaution, several Maryland State Police officers were stationed at the check-in stations yesterday, but only one protester showed up at Oakland. The protester briefly expressed his concerns and left, Miss Blizzard said. Mr. Ciekot said protesters don't understand the problems that black bears have caused in the area. Residents in rural, Western Maryland have complained for years about encounters with the area's increasing bear population -- including property damage, livestock losses and traffic accidents. "Most of [the protesters] I've seen don't live in a territory where there are bears, so they don't know," he said. "There are a lot of bears. The residents of Garrett County have wanted this bear hunt for so long." At a meeting Sunday in Frostburg, DNR officials distributed the last of 183 licenses to hunters selected by lottery for the hunt. Each permit entitles the holder and a companion to hunt, with just one bear allowed per team. Seventy percent of the permits are for use on private land only, and the landowner may participate as a third team member. Counting companions and landowners, the 183 licenses involve the 381 persons. The hunters also are prohibited from selling parts of the bear. • This article is based in part on wire service reports.