Working Paper 117 · Herd & HarvestMaine · Black bear · 2025 harvest
Maine Bear Hunting Methods: What the 2025 Harvest Report Shows
FDR Research Desk · Published Sources: State wildlife-agency public records and FDR analysis
Choosing among bear hunting methods using reported harvest and guide shares. This paper separates historical harvest composition, license-based rates and the reporting limits that matter when comparing hunts.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife 2025 bear harvest report gives counts and shares of registered bears. It does not give the chance that a hunter using a given method fills a tag. This article keeps those two things separate.
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The 2025 harvest at a glance
Swipe table to see every column
| Measure | 2025 figure in the report |
|---|---|
| Total bears tagged | 3,611 |
| Bear permits | about 12,700 |
| Taken over bait | 61% |
| Taken by hound hunters | 981 bears |
| Taken by trappers | 359 bears |
| Spot and stalk, still hunting, or November deer season | 3% |
| Taken during the November deer season | 23 bears |
| Males | 1,922 (53%) |
| Adults | 3,400 (94%) |
The report describes higher hound and trapper harvest as a trend over the last six years.
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The method figures do not reconcile
As printed, the method figures add to slightly more than the total:
- Hounds: 981 of 3,611 bears, or 27.2 percent.
- Traps: 359 bears, or 9.9 percent.
- Bait: 61 percent.
- Other methods: 3 percent.
Together these reach 101.1 percent. The report does not explain the difference, and this article does not assign a cause. Treat each figure as reported, not as a slice of one pie.
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Bears per permit is not hunter success
Dividing bears by permits does not produce a success rate, for two reasons:
- The report says hunters have been allowed since 2008 to take two bears if one is trapped and the other hunted. In 2025, 59 hunters took two bears.
- The permit count is approximate.
This article does not publish a bears-per-permit ratio.
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Residency and guides
Visitors killed 2,154 bears, 60 percent of the total. Nonresidents took 61 percent of the bears taken over bait and 72 percent of those taken with hounds.
Among successful residents, 59 percent took their bear over bait. Residents also accounted for most of the smaller categories: 92 percent of deer-season bears, 76 percent of trapped bears and 84 percent of spot and stalk bears.
Guides assisted 492 successful residents (34 percent) and 1,973 successful nonresidents (92 percent). By method, guided hunts accounted for these shares of 2025 bears:
Swipe table to see every column
| Method | Share taken with guide assistance |
|---|---|
| Trained bear dogs | 90% |
| Bait | 66% |
| Traps | 30% |
| Spot, stalk or still hunting | 14% |
| While deer hunting | 8% |
These are shares of the kill. They show that most hound bears and most bait bears in 2025 came from guided hunts. They do not measure how much a guide changes an individual hunter's odds.
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2025 season windows
The report describes the 2025 season this way:
- General season: opened the last Monday in August and closed the last Saturday in November. Hunting near natural foods or still hunting was allowed throughout.
- Bait: first four weeks, August 25 to September 20, 2025.
- Hounds: September 8 to October 31, 2025.
- Trapping: September 1 to October 31.
The report says most bears are taken during the first month of the season and with bait, dogs or traps. These dates are 2025 history. Use the current Maine hunting and trapping law books for any later season.
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Natural food and denning
The report says natural food abundance varies by year and can strongly influence the harvest. For 2025, it expected abundant natural food and a lower harvest. It says the drought in much of the state led to a high statewide harvest of 3,611 bears instead. It reads the 23 bears taken during the November deer season as a sign that bears entered dens early.
MDIFW’s bear hunting guidance page says bears typically den by November 1. Depending on food, they may den as early as September or as late as December. Females and northern Maine bears tend to den earlier than males and central Maine bears.
The page describes how food year affects hunting:
- Poor food years: bears show more interest in bait and den earlier.
- Good food years: interest in bait falls, bears forage longer, and November deer hunters get more opportunity.
It also says a good food year is typically followed by a poor one. These are agency descriptions of general patterns, not predictions for a specific area or year.
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Where bears were taken
Bears were harvested in 14 of 16 counties and 26 of 29 Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs). Aroostook County had the highest harvest, 1,034 bears or 29 percent of the total.
Harvest density was greatest in WMDs 3, 6, 12 and 28, at 21 to 26 bears per 100 square miles of forested land. The statewide average was 14. WMDs 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 29 had fewer than five. These are harvest densities, not population densities.
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What the report supports
The 2025 report supports three points:
- Bait, hounds and traps produced most registered bears.
- Nonresidents and guided hunts made up most of the hound and bait harvest.
- Food conditions are a major source of year-to-year change.
It does not support a per-hunter success rate by method.
Source limit: method, residency and guide figures describe 2025 registered harvest, not hunter success. The printed method figures do not reconcile with the statewide total. Undated method-success ranges are not used here.
NOTES AND SOURCES
- Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife harvest report. The source is linked in the article body. Retrieved October 8, 2026.
- Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife source page. The source is linked in the article body. Retrieved October 8, 2026.
- MEASURED labels refer to agency-reported registrations and license counts. Food-survey indices are SAMPLED. Percentages recomputed from reported counts are DERIVED. Population estimates are agency models, not complete counts. Denominators and reporting years remain specific to each comparison.
Fully Drawn Research is an independent data analysis desk, not affiliated with any state wildlife agency, transportation agency, mapping provider or outfitter. Fully Drawn Research analysis of public agency reports. Historical harvest results describe the reporting scope stated in each source. They do not forecast an individual hunt. Check the agency’s current regulations before hunting.
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