BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Victoria Meshcheryakova’s hair clung to her flushed cheeks, damp with sweat.

Dressed from head to toe in a polyester bear suit, the Silver Spring resident joined a small group of animal activists in a last-ditch effort to thwart Maryland’s bear hunting season, which started this morning.

“It’s absolutely unnecessary,” said Meshcheryakova on Sunday afternoon outside Gov. Martin O’Malley’s mansion in Annapolis.

“I just love animals. I think we can coexist.”

During the next several days, holders of the 220 state-issued hunting permits will prowl Maryland’s hunt zone, encompassing all of Allegheny and Garrett counties, for one of the state’s estimated 500 black bears.

The season is Maryland’s fourth since former Gov. Robert Ehrlich lifted a 51-year ban on black bearing hunting in 2004, citing growing complaints of bears venturing into yards, garbage cans and traffic.

Animal advocates said they hoped O’Malley would reverse the policy.

But “the governor feels the bear hunt should continue to mitigate bear/human encounters, especially in western Maryland,” said O’Malley’s spokesman, Rick Abbruzzese, in a statement.

Organized by the Gaithersburg-based Humane Society of the United States, protesters Sunday said Maryland’s black bear population is closer to 330 after more than 100 were killed in hunts during the past four years.

The group offered the state $75,000 to compensate landowners for damages caused by bears, said Mike Markarian, executive vice president of HSUS.

“Shooting these animals for their heads and their hides is not appropriate,” Markarian said.

But since the hunt’s reinstallation, complaints about bears have decreased, said Garrett County Administrator Monty Pagenhardt. Residents there are required to use “bear-proof” trash cans, said Pagenhardt, who recently spotted a black bear meandering up his driveway.

“That type of thing has to be controlled,” he said. “I think the county in general supports the hunt.”

The hunt will end Oct. 27, and a second will begin Dec. 3. The state will close the hunt when its quota of 70 bears is reached.

jmalarkey@baltimoreexaminer.com