By: Rachel Bernstein

If you’re seeing @MDBlackBear suddenly becoming active on Twitter these days, it’s for good reason.

Apparently ’tis the season for the state’s black bear hunting lottery, and the Twitter account (created by the Dept. of Natural Resources) has about 800 followers. The DNR is spreading the word that the 2011 hunting permit lottery opened online July 1, and is accepting applicants through Sept. 2.

DNR will issue 260 bear hunting permits this season, with only one black bear to be harvested by a permittee/subpermittee hunting team. More details on the process and the sport itself can be found here.

Kind of a peculiar way to use Twitter, but hey, it’s beary innovative.  (Yes, I did.)