More than 1,000 hunters are expected to go into the woods in northern and eastern Maine on the first day of the state’s moose season.

This is the 42nd year of Maine’s moose hunt, which resumed in 1980 after having been closed since 1936.

“Maine’s moose hunt is well known as the hunt of a lifetime,” said Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Commissioner Judy Camuso. The moose hunt attracts hunters from all over the United States and beyond,” Camuso said in a release.

More than 69,000 hunters applied for moose permits this year. Of those, 4,080 permits were issued for the season, which runs from now through Nov. 26, according to the wildlife agency. But restrictions apply in different parts of the state and for different portions of the season. Only bulls can be killed during the first two weeks.

“The hunt allows us to control the moose population. We manage the moose population both for those who like to hunt, and those who like to view moose,” said MDIFW spokesman Mark Latti. Without a regulated hunt, “the moose population would reach their capacity and disease would be prevalent,” he said. “It wouldn’t be good for either the habitat or the moose population.”

Latti estimates that Maine’s moose population is about 50,000. If each hunter with a moose permit killed one, that would leave about 46,000 moose. “Last year 65 percent of moose hunters got a moose,” he said. “We adjust the permits to what the population can handle at different areas.”

« Previous

Business is brisk as Amish market in Unity picks up where it left off prior to fire

Next »

With winds easing, aircraft join search for missing teen in Freeport