AUGUSTA, Maine – Maine’s moose tally for this fall’s two-week hunting season was lower than last year’s total, as the success rate slipped from 80 percent to 76 percent, according to a preliminary count from the state game department.

Maine’s moose season spanned two weeks ending Oct. 15, with hunting restricted to certain regions each week. A total of 2,895 permits have been issued during each of the last two seasons.

This fall, 2,226 hunters were successful, making a success rate of 76 percent, according to preliminary figures from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife released Wednesday.

In 2004, 2,317 hunters got a moose, for a success rate of 80 percent. The success rates are much higher than for other game, such as deer, which averages 17 percent, bear 17 percent, and turkey, an average of 26 percent.

Moose permit holders are assigned to wildlife management districts where they can hunt. The department wants to decrease the number of moose in northeastern Aroostook County, increase it in the Moosehead Lake area, and stabilize the population in other parts of the state.

The moose hunt has been restricted since the early 1980s to the northern two-thirds of Maine, but game officials are now looking at a plan to expand it in other areas of western, eastern and northern Maine.

Also proposed is a six-day moose-hunting season in eastern Kennebec, Hancock, Knox and Waldo counties during either the last week of the regular firearms season in November or during the muzzleloader deer-hunting season in December.

This year’s 2,895 permit holders were chosen by lottery from the 68,841 applicants, most of whom are Maine residents. Maine’s moose population, estimated at about 29,000, is the largest in the lower 48 states.