Vernon, N.J. ? New Jersey hunters take to the woods today for a controversial season aimed at thinning the state’s growing population of black bears, whose hungry foraging has frightened suburban residents.

Up to 5,000 hunters were expected to take part in the six-day hunt – only the second in New Jersey in 35 years – which begins at sunrise today.

Black bears have rebounded from near extinction in the state but the loss of habitat to development is forcing many of the animals to seek food in populated areas.

The hunt, restricted to an area of about 1,600 square miles in the state’s northwest corner, is expected to draw thousands of hunters armed with shotguns or old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifles.

The hunt has been sharply criticized by animal rights advocates, who call it inhumane and went to court Friday in an unsuccessful bid to stop it.

Bear hunter Richard Cutting, from Hewitt, N.J., back to camera, wears his bear hunting license permit on the back of his jacket as he talks to reporters in Trenton, N.J. A state appellate panel on Friday denied a request to delay New Jersey's second bear hunt in 35 years, which is slated to begin today.

But hunters and the state say the hunt – which coincides with white-tailed deer season – is necessary, given the bears’ increasing incursions into backyards and trash cans.

The state’s last bear hunt was in 2003, when 328 were killed. That was the first bear season since 1970, when hunts were suspended because the black bear population had dropped to about 100 animals.

Today, the population is estimated at 1,600 to 3,200 and complaints and sightings are up sharply all over the state.

Last July, a 142-pound female bear bit the leg of a sleeping camper at High Point State Park, in the state’s still rural northwest corner. The camper’s injuries were minor. The bear was shot by a state biologist.

A month earlier in Egg Harbor City, near Atlantic City in southern New Jersey, a 150-pound bruin rummaged through garbage cans, ate from bird feeders and jumped a fence a block from an elementary school during a weeklong stay.