AUGUSTA (AP) – Maine on Monday becomes the first northern New England state to launch its 2006 moose-hunting season, as more than 2,800 permit holders take to the woods in search of a trophy.

The first six-day portion of the split season gets under way at dawn Monday in northern and eastern parts of the state. The second week runs from Oct. 9-14, in the northern two-thirds of the state. Biologists estimate Maine’s moose population at 29,000.

Maine’s moose hunt predates the seasons in the other northern New England states. New Hampshire’s runs Oct. 21-29. Vermont, like Maine, has a split season, which runs Oct. 21-26 and Oct. 28-Nov. 2.

In Maine, hunters will search for trophies in designated wildlife management districts covering more than 21,000 square miles. Hunting camps such as Ross Lake Camps in Clayton Lake said they were booked solid with eager moose permit holders.

Guide Wayne Dillon of Dillon’s Gunsmoke Lodge in Brownville was still leading bear hunters on the last day of that season Friday, his wife Grace said, but ready for the transition to moose guiding.

“Because he’s out during bear season, he keeps his eyes open for moose,” said Grace Dillon.

State game officials said 2,825 moose permits were issued for the 2006 season, a large majority of them for antlered moose. During the 2005 season, hunters killed 2,226 moose out of 2,895 permits issued, for a success rate of 77 percent.

Biologist Karen Morris of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department said moose are in prime physical shape this time of the year, just as they begin their mating season.

While foliage is still dense in the woods across the state, that disadvantage to hunters will be more than outweighed by the willingness of moose to respond to moose calls, game officials said. The National Weather Service predicted cloudy weather with a chance of rain, and high temperatures in the 50s, when the season starts Monday.

In neighboring New Hampshire, which also selects moose permit hunters by lottery, 675 permit winners were drawn from a pool of 16,000 applications in June, according to the Fish and Game Department’s wildlife division.

The odds of bagging a moose in New Hampshire are also good. Last fall, hunters killed 408 moose for a success rate of 77.6 percent, the highest since 1995. Hunters have the best luck in the North Country, with a success rate of 90.6 percent. Moose hunting luck falls drastically in southern New Hampshire, which reported a 26.3 percent success rate last year.

In Vermont, the moose hunting season is expanding as the animal’s population grows. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates there are 5,000 moose in the state.

In 1993, the first year of Vermont’s modern moose hunt, the state issued 30 permits and 25 moose were taken. This year the state issued 1,115 permits and officials expect hunters to take 650 moose in the season.

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On the Net:

Maine moose hunt: http://www.maine.gov/ifw/hunttrap/moosehunting/index.htm

AP-ES-09-22-06 1650EDT