MAINE
DEER TRACKING
Find licensed blood tracking dog teams and wounded-deer recovery help across the Pine Tree State.
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TRACKING LAWS* FOR THE STATE OF MAINE
Know the rules before you track. These Maine laws help ensure ethical recovery, respect for landowners, and the future of our hunting rights.
Maine allows trained dogs to track lawfully wounded deer, bear, and moose, but the handler must hold a valid Maine Leashed Dog Tracking Permit. The permit holder must also possess a valid big-game hunting license. Maine's tracking regulations allow one leashed dog, which must remain under the handler's physical control throughout the recovery.
The tracking dog must be attached to the handler by a lead connected to its collar or harness, and the tracking lead must be at least 12 feet long. Unlike states that establish a maximum leash length, Maine establishes a minimum.
Before beginning a wounded-game track, the permit holder must notify the nearest available Maine Game Warden assigned to the area. The notification must include the tracker's name, the hunter's identifying and big-game license information, and the general location of the wounded animal. The hunter who wounded the animal must normally accompany the tracker unless physically incapacitated.
During Maine's regular firearm deer season, a person hunting with a firearm or crossbow must wear two articles of hunter orange visible from all sides. One must be a solid hunter-orange hat, and the other must cover a major portion of the torso and be at least 50% hunter orange. Tracking teams should wear highly visible orange whenever recovering deer during firearm season.
Maine expressly permits licensed tracking-dog handlers to follow a wounded deer outside normal legal hunting hours. Artificial lights may legally be used while conducting an authorized wounded-game track. If the deer remains alive after legal hunting hours, the licensed tracking-dog permit holder may dispatch it with a handgun legal for hunting deer in Maine, subject to applicable firearm laws and permit conditions. This authority continues during the open season and for 24 hours immediately following the final day of the applicable season.
Maine has an unusual implied-permission system for private land. If private land is not posted, state law generally allows recreational access without advance permission. However, MDIFW strongly recommends asking the landowner before entering even unposted property. Posted land, property where access has been denied, and other restricted areas must be respected, so hunters should obtain permission before allowing a recovery to continue across a property boundary whenever possible.
Maine prohibits using aircraft, including drones and remote-controlled aircraft, to aid or assist in hunting deer, bear, or moose. MDIFW does not publish a wounded-deer drone-recovery exception, so thermal-drone recovery should not be used in Maine unless MDIFW provides contrary authorization or the law changes. The Legislature has previously considered a proposal to allow drones for wounded-game recovery, but it did not become law.
* Disclaimer: The information provided by TRAKR is intended as a general summary of state tracking laws and regulations and is not legal advice. Because laws and regulations may change, hunters and trackers should always verify current statutes, regulations, and agency guidance before using dogs, drones, or other recovery methods in their state.
Average Deer Tracking Fees in Maine
Hunters searching for deer tracking services in Maine can find trained blood tracking dog teams to help locate wounded deer. Based on pricing information listed by Maine trackers in the TRAKR database, available tracking services are currently offered either free of charge or on a tip- or donation-based basis.
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100% of Maine dog tracking teams in the TRAKR database offer free tracking services or operate primarily for tips or donations.
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There are currently no Maine dog tracking teams in the available data with a fixed or calculable paid fee, so TRAKR does not yet have enough information to publish a statewide paid-rate average.
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Drone deer recovery is currently illegal in Maine. For that reason, drone recovery rates are not included in this Maine pricing analysis.
How Maine Deer Tracking Rates Were Calculated
These averages are based on rates and pricing instructions supplied by trackers through their TRAKR profiles. When a tracker listed mileage charges or travel-based pricing, the estimated rate was calculated using a standard travel distance of 50 miles each way.
Fee ranges were calculated using the midpoint. Separate recovery or finder fees were added to the initial tracking fee. When separate rates were listed for bucks and does, the buck rate was used because more than 80 percent of tracking requests involve bucks.
The rates shown are estimates based on available information and do not represent fixed, required, or recommended prices. TRAKR does not set tracker fees and does not guarantee the accuracy or availability of any listed rate. Individual trackers independently determine their own pricing, service areas, travel charges, deposits, recovery fees, and other terms. Maine tracking pricing data last updated August 2026.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT DEER TRACKING IN MAINE
Deer abundance varies dramatically across Maine. MDIFW reports densities of approximately 1–5 deer per square mile in northern Maine, compared with roughly 15–40 deer per square mile in central and southern areas. This creates very different hunting and recovery conditions depending on where the animal is wounded.
Southern and central Maine may include farm fields, hardwood ridges, suburban woodlots, thick regeneration, swamp edges, and fragmented cover. Farther north, tracking teams may encounter enormous tracts of forest, cedar and spruce-fir cover, bogs, logging roads, steep terrain, and comparatively low deer densities.
Maine's deer are also unusually well adapted to cold northern conditions. MDIFW notes that Maine supports one of the largest subspecies of white-tailed deer, with adult bucks averaging about 195 pounds live weight and large bucks commonly exceeding 200 pounds.
A trained tracking dog gives hunters another recovery option when conventional blood trailing fails, and Maine's highly regulated tracking program provides a legal framework for continuing those recoveries after dark.
Size and Impact
Some publicly available Maine deer and tracking statistics include:
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Maine hunters registered 55,876 deer during the 2025 season.
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MDIFW's current public directory lists 35 licensed leashed-dog tracking permit holders serving different areas of Maine.
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Deer density ranges from approximately 1–5 deer per square mile in northern Maine to 15–40 per square mile in central and southern areas.
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MDIFW examines approximately 6,000–8,000 hunter-harvested deer each year to evaluate age structure, sex ratios, recruitment, mortality, body condition, and other population measures.
Maine Tracking Dog Regulations
The primary statute is 12 M.R.S. §11111 — Tracking wounded animals with a leashed dog. Maine's more detailed tracking procedures are contained in 09-137 C.M.R. Chapter 25 — Leashed Dog Tracking Permit Rules.
Maine requires a permit before a person may use a leashed dog to track a lawfully wounded deer, bear, or moose. The permit is valid for three years and currently costs $81, in addition to a $25 initial application fee.
During a recovery:
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Only one tracking dog may be used.
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The dog must remain under physical control.
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The lead must be at least 12 feet long.
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The hunter who wounded the deer normally accompanies the tracker.
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The tracker must notify a Game Warden before beginning.
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The permit holder must carry both the applicable hunting license and tracking permit.
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The licensed tracker can perform a qualifying after-hours dispatch.
Why Maine Allows Tracking Dogs
Maine law recognizes that using a controlled dog to recover a specific animal that has already been wounded is different from using dogs to hunt healthy deer.
The state's Leashed Dog Tracking Permit system provides hunters with a legal method of using a dog's scenting ability after visible blood disappears while maintaining strict oversight of the recovery. The regulations control who may conduct tracks, require the dog to remain physically restrained, require Game Warden notification, establish nighttime procedures, and specify who may dispatch the wounded animal.
By allowing regulated tracking after legal hunting hours, Maine also gives hunters an opportunity to make a responsible recovery rather than abandoning a trail simply because sunset has passed.
Certification and Training
Maine has one of the more structured handler-qualification systems in the United States.
An applicant for a Maine Leashed Dog Tracking Permit must possess a valid Maine hunting license that allows the hunting of all legal species and must score at least 80% on a written examination administered by MDIFW. Licensed Maine hunting guides are exempt from the examination requirement.
The permit currently costs $81 for three years, and first-time applicants also pay a $25 nonrefundable application fee.
Maine does not require the tracking dog itself to pass a state-administered blood-tracking certification test. The state's qualification process centers on the handler's knowledge of hunting and tracking laws and the controlled manner in which the recovery is conducted.
Individual handlers may additionally test their dogs through United Blood Trackers, the American Blood Trackers Association, breed organizations, or other voluntary tracking programs.
TRAKR in Maine
At this time, Maine does not have an official statewide TRAKR Network.
Hunters can still use the TRAKR app to submit a tracking request and connect with available Maine-licensed tracking dog handlers who provide service in their area.
If you're a licensed Maine tracking dog handler interested in helping hunters recover wounded deer, TRAKR is actively expanding across the United States and welcomes experienced recovery teams interested in helping build an official Maine network.
Most Popular Deer Tracking Dog Breeds in Maine
TRAKR does not currently have enough reported dog-breed information from Maine to provide meaningful breed percentages.
As more Maine tracking teams add breed information to their TRAKR profiles, this section can be updated to show the state's most commonly used deer tracking dog breeds.
TRAKR breed statistics are based on dogs whose breed has been reported by trackers in the TRAKR app. Percentages and average ages may change as trackers add or update their dogs.