Black Bear

If you're a big fan, you already knew what was coming in the season finale. But it didn't make it any easier -- or less heartbreaking -- to watch. The majority of the Season 3 "Downton" finale, or the "Christmas special" as its called in the U.K., took place in Scotland, where the whole family (minus Branson) visits the Highlands home of the Dowager's niece, Susan, and her husband, Shrimpy. Most of the trip included bagpipes, hunting, more bagpipes and Scottish reel dancing. But more on that later (and more on O'Brien meeting her Scottish lady's maid doppelganger)

Justin Black made big baskets at the end of regulation and overtime, helping fifth-seeded Morgan State beat fourth-seeded Savannah State, 64-61, in the quarterfinals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament Thursday night at Norfolk (Va.) Scope Arena. Black scored 20 points for the Bears (16-14), who will play eighth-seeded Bethune-Cookman in today's semifinals. Bethune-Cookman ousted top-seeded Norfolk State, the MEAC's regular-season champion, 70-68 in overtime Wednesday.

I heard a crash in the trees along the Youghiogheny River in Garrett County last week. I was standing in the river, fishing with a buddy. It had been a pretty day, and now the sun was starting to disappear behind some fir trees, and I heard heavy thrashing coming from the woods. I doubted it was another human being; a human being would likely stay on the trail that runs along the Youghiogheny and not make all that racket. It wasn't a squirrel; I know the sound of a squirrel banging through branches and brush, and that wasn't a squirrel.

With an increase in the number of permits given out and a record number of bears killed during last month's five-day Maryland black bear hunt came another high mark - arrests made for illegal baiting and other violations. According to the Natural Resources Police, 22 hunters were arrested. While it represented more than five times the number of hunters arrested last year (four) and double the number from 2010, it is only 2.5 percent of the number of hunters who were either issued permits or had sub-permits.

So, which is it? Are Marylanders overwhelmingly repulsed by the thought of hunters shooting black bears or do we think hunting is a legitimate way to keep the critter population under control? It depends, I guess, on who's doing the asking and who's doing the answering. Days ago, the Department of Natural Resources released a poll of 831 residents indicating that 65 percent approve of a bear season as a management tool. The approval rating rises to 78 percent of respondents who live in "Bear Country," Maryland's two westernmost counties, where most of the animals roam.

The largest forest game animal in Maryland is the black bear. There is no hunting season for this shy yet potentially dangerous resident of Western Maryland.But a limited season is being looked at carefully by the Department of Natural Resources, which hopes to present a draft management plan to the public during two meetings expected to be scheduled for the middle of January.Before one begins to schedule scouting trips to Garrett and Allegany counties, however, western region wildlife manager Tom Mathews said recently that there is no guarantee that a hunting season will be included in regulations for 1992-93.

PROPOSALS to authorize a hunting season for black bears in Maryland are misguided, ignoring less drastic, practical solutions. The problem is that a growing number of bears are coming in contact with human activity in Western Maryland. Whether raiding garbage cans or farm crops, feeding on livestock or wandering around back yards of homes, the black bear is a decided nuisance (and danger) to humans there. As it becomes more used to human presence, the normally shy animal becomes less wary of encounters.

State wildlife officials are being asked to consider a limited hunt in parts of Allegany and Garrett counties to control a black bear population that is increasingly damaging crops and livestock in the Maryland mountains.The proposal -- which would require General Assembly approval -- is one of three recommendations a citizens task force is expected to issue today to address nuisance bear problems in those counties. Public meetings on the recommendations are to be conducted next month in Accident, Timonium, Easton and Annapolis.

One of Maryland's latest environmental debates comes from neighborhoods where an increasing number of residents are looking out of their windows and seeing black bears staring back at them.While the return of the black bear is seen by some as a positive symbol of improving environmental quality, others are concerns about the growing bear population in Garrett and Allegany counties."I get many complaints from my constituents that they live in fear because of bears roaming around their yard," says Garrett County Commissioner Brenda Beutscher.

A young male black bear that had been spotted for more than a week in the Arbutus-Halethorpe area of Baltimore County was captured last night after Department of Natural Resources police shot it with a tranquilizer gun as it roamed in the backyard of a house in Arbutus. The 1 1/2 -year-old, 100-pound bear ran a short distance after being hit, then collapsed as the drug took effect in the 5200 block of Larlin Road, not far from the Beltway. The animal was not injured. After being examined, the bear was placed in a circular bear-capture cage, doused with water and transported by DNR vehicle to the more isolated wilds of Western Maryland, where it was to be released.

Nearly seven decades separate the youngest and oldest hunters who killed black bears in this year's state-controlled hunt, which ended Friday night. A record 92 bears were killed in Allegany and Garrett counties during the five-day hunt, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. A quota of 80 to 110 bears had been set, an increase from last year's quota of 55 to 80, which corresponds with the growth of the bear population in Maryland. Sixty-eight bears were killed a year ago. Aurora Wilhelm, who won't turn 8 until next month, became the youngest hunter to take down a bear since the hunt was revived in 2004.

Kaitlin Zembower had gone deer hunting with her father Jerry countless times over the years near their Frostburg home, but the experience they shared during last year's annual Maryland black bear hunt was much different. Though Jerry Zembower had seen the same bear every day on his way to work in the week leading up to the hunt, he and his daughter didn't see any, let alone shoot one, during their hunt. But Kaitlin wouldn't trade those hours last October for any other time she had spent with her dad hunting.

When Lisa Moore searched outside her house in Jacksonville on Thursday for her 4-year-old daughter, she instead found a 2-year-old black bear. "I looked for her, turned the corner… I see this bear on its hind legs and it was trying to eat bird seed from a bird feeder" hanging in the tree, Moore said. After about 10 seconds watching the bear in awe, she said, "it hit me, where is my daughter?" Luckily, she was inside and, together, mother and daughter watched the bear hanging around a swing set, occasionally making his way to the bird feeder.

The Towson football team has made the race for the Colonial Athletic Association championship even more competitive. With Saturday's 40-30 win at Maine, Towson not only propelled itself into a three-way tie for first place with the Black Bears and New Hampshire, but also provided itself a springboard into the final two games of its CAA schedule. However, the Tigers insisted their focus Saturday was on the task at hand — stopping the Black Bears, who entered the game ranked seventh in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Maine football coach Jack Cosgrove looked back at last year's game against Towson, and he realized something. "It's almost difficult to imagine those two teams playing in this game today," Cosgrove said. Nearly a year ago, on Nov. 13, 2010, Maine defeated Towson 28-18 in a game filled with penalties and turnovers at Johnny Unitas Stadium. At that point in the season, the Tigers and the Black Bears had relegated themselves to the fact that they would not play any postseason football, and both teams finished 11th and ninth, respectively, in the Colonial Athletic Association.

HAGERSTOWN — The state Department of Natural Resources says Maryland's bear hunt is closed. Sixty-seven bears were killed as of 9 p.m. on Friday and the hunt was closed. The season began on Monday. The hunt was limited to Allegany and Garrett counties.

OAKLAND -- As a photography major at a Washington college, Coty Jones is used to taking tough shots. But yesterday, on the first day of Maryland's black bear season, Jones shouldered her rifle, steadied her nerves and brought down a 615-pound bear, breaking the three-year-old state record by 129 pounds. On its hind legs, the bear would have barely squeezed through a doorway, its ears grazing the ceiling. It took eight men two hours to drag it the length of five football fields. "He didn't look that big until he got close," said Jones, a Hoopers Island resident and junior at Corcoran College of Art and Design.

With a hearing scheduled Wednesday on a bill to block Maryland's first black bear season in 50 years, animal rights activists from across the country have drawn a bull's-eye on the state's hunting community and the agency that regulates the activity. Baltimore radio listeners are hearing spots featuring an actor from a popular CBS soap opera who urges them to call Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and voice their opposition. A bear behavior expert from California will help lead an anti-hunting rally in Bethesda tomorrow night, then testify at the legislative hearing.

Less than two weeks after a young black bear was fatally injured by a car on the Beltway near Lutherville, state wildlife officials are tracking another bruin last spotted Wednesday in Cockeysville. "I suspect this guy dropped down from Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River," said Harry Spiker, a bear biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. "This bear is probably wishing he hadn't come this way." Although Maryland's black bears aren't known to breed farther east than Frederick County, these springtime sojourns — sometimes more than 100 miles — by young male bears have become annual events.