AUGUSTA – Last fall’s deer kill in Maine was slightly larger than the previous season’s total, with the highest totals per square mile in central and southwestern Maine, state wildlife officials said Friday.

Deer hunters killed 30,926 deer, an increase from the 2003 season’s total of 30,313. The harvest was somewhat lower than the preliminary projection of 32,000 in December, due in part to lower doe and fawn harvests by hunters.

Hunting and weather conditions during the 2004 firearms season improved from those of 2003, but were far from ideal, with tracking snow arriving late in the second week in northern areas but melting later in the season. The last two weeks of the firearms season were warmer than normal.