MOUNT NEBO, Md. — Just around daybreak, David Ciekot staked out a spot here in the western woods near a town called Friendsville, climbed a white oak tree and waited under a heavy sky the color of gun metal.
For all the months of protests and legal wrestling that had led to this moment -- the opening of a planned six-day bear-hunting season in a state that had banned the practice for 51 years -- it only took half an hour for Ciekot to get what he came for.
At 7 a.m., with a single shot from 40 yards away, he downed a 9-month-old female black bear. It weighed in at 84 pounds.
The day was over before it had begun, and Ciekot was done, by law, for the season. Nevertheless, he was proud to have bagged the first.
"I didn't really know if I'd see anything at all," said the 35-year-old outdoors writer from the state's Eastern Shore, still wearing his orange coat and hat. "The people of Garrett County have wanted to have a hunt for a long time." Bears, he said, are "just a constant nuisance to them."
Ciekot was one of 381 hunters to participate in an event that animal-rights activists had fought mightily to stop. Their efforts culminated unsuccessfully Sunday night with a candlelight vigil in front of the governor's mansion in Annapolis, a four-hour drive to the east.
The end result was permission to take 30 black bears from an estimated population of 500. "There is no justifiable reason to allow hunters to shoot 30 bears," said Michael Markarian, president of the Fund for Animals, which had filed a lawsuit against the state. "It's not going to solve the nuisance problem. It doesn't teach people to store food away from bears. It doesn't reimburse farmers for their crops."
But while activists demonstrated Sunday, the state used a lottery system to dole out the last of the licenses. The hunters -- many of whom worked in teams of two, with one license for both of them -- spent days scouting the territory.
They set out Monday in the morning darkness to take their positions. The weather was on their side -- cold and overcast. There was no wind, reducing the likelihood that the animals would pick up a human scent.
"Perfect for bear hunting," more than one state biologist declared.
"This is the next step in bear management in Maryland," said Harry Spiker, the black bear project manager for the state's Department of Natural Resources.
