These four deer are alert to the presence of the photographer, who discovered them in the backyard of a home in Calais earlier this summer. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife on Friday will release its list of 2021 any-deer permit lottery winners. Credit: Courtesy of Melissa Huang

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has released the list of winners in the 2021 any-deer permit lottery.

The listings contain the hunter’s name, mailing residence, hunting license number and permit number. The first two digits on the permit number indicate the Wildlife Management District for which it is issued. For example, 23R0233867 is a permit for WMD 23.

The letters following the first two digits represent whether the permit is regular (R), junior (J), landowner (L), Superpack (S) or bonus (RB).

The state has issued 153,910 any-deer permits, which allow hunters possessing them to tag an antlerless deer including a doe, or a buck with antlers less than 3 inches in length.

That’s an increase of 43,920 permits over 2020, when hunters harvested 14,020 antlerless deer, including 9,120 adult does and 4,900 fawns.

Maine first implemented the permit system for hunting antlerless deer in 1986.


Pete Warner

Pete graduated from Bangor High School in 1980 and earned a B.S. in Journalism (Advertising) from the University of Maine in 1986. He grew up fishing at his family's camp on Sebago Lake but didn't take...