The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife recently released its 2025 moose harvest report, providing a comprehensive look at the state’s herd through detailed registration and age data.
Harvest totals and permit success
Maine’s 2025 moose season registered 2,309 total kills from 4,075 permits, for an overall success rate of 57%.
Standard Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs) accounted for 2,169 kills from 3,555 permits, a 61% success rate. The adaptive WMD 4A produced 140 kills from 520 permits, for a 27% success rate.
The adaptive hunt was part of a multi-year management experiment aimed at reducing winter tick impacts by lowering moose densities in that region, particularly through increased antlerless permits.
Northern districts — mainly WMDs 1, 2, 5 and 6 — accounted for the largest share of harvest and posted some of the highest success rates, with several hunts exceeding 60% and a high of 78% in WMD 6.
Success varied by hunt timing and district. The September bull season generally produced lower success rates than the October hunts in several northern districts. While some October bull hunts were strong, the second October antlerless hunts often posted the highest success rates of the entire season.
September bull hunts posted lower success rates in every district compared to 2024, a decline state moose biologist Lee Kantar attributed in part to drought and warmer-than-normal conditions.
In WMD 1, hunters saw a 51% success rate during the September bull hunt. By comparison, the second October antlerless hunt reached 75%. In WMD 6, the October bull hunt posted a 74% success rate, while the second October antlerless hunt climbed slightly higher to 78%.
By contrast, the adaptive hunt in WMD 4A declined across three October hunts, dropping to as low as 21%.
From 2021 to 2025, statewide hunter success averaged 60.8%. Success in the adaptive hunt dropped from 52% in 2021 to 27% in 2025, contributing significantly to the overall decline in statewide efficiency.
Age data and population structure
The 2025 report analyzed 1,999 teeth collected from harvested moose to determine their ages. The harvest was dominated by younger animals, with about 76% of moose between 0.5 and 4.5 years old. The most frequently recorded age was 2.5 years.
Calves were relatively rare, with 24 recorded among the sampled moose.
Approximately 19% of harvested moose were between 5.5 and 9.5 years old. Roughly 5% were 10.5 years or older. The oldest recorded moose was 16.5 years old.
A small subset of 13 moose reached 13.5 years or older, representing less than 1% of all sampled animals.
The median age of harvested moose was 3.5 years, with an average of 4.4 years.
What the data shows
The 2025 age distribution is heavily weighted toward younger age classes, anchored by the 2.5-year-old cohort, while still including a measurable number of mature and older animals.
Looking across the past five years, both the median age of 3.5 years and the average age have remained steady, indicating no meaningful shift in the biological composition of the harvest.
Taken together, the harvest and age data suggest that the decline in hunter success in 2025 was driven more by hunting conditions, particularly reduced performance in the adaptive management zone and lower September bull success, than by any measurable change in herd age structure.