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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2008
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 0 2,883 1,360 14,108 18,351
Woodcock 4,979 3,044 1,350 1,140 10,513
Snipe 0 509 175 2,940 3,624
Pigeon 2,297 3,705 15,027 5,599 26,628
Rabbit 32,121 11,533 89,486 71,797 204,937
Starling 7,355 15,037 23,428 136,930 182,750
Pheasant 14,871 10,693 2,818 5,423 33,805
Coot 0 20 51 786 857
Jay 0 0 0 0 0
Magpie 6,989 1,645 13,841 5,432 27,907
Common quail 4,121 0 21,399 13,029 38,549
Red fox 1,371 930 1,748 1,302 5,351
Hare 1,234 1,266 4,174 1,446 8,120
Red-legged partridge 32,254 22,974 49,452 29,100 133,780
Grey partridge 1 41 295 0 337
Thrush 38,019 54,947 127,719 733,498 954,183
Turtle dove 6,635 10,378 14,091 6,230 37,334
Wood pigeon 39,066 15,363 19,972 21,704 96,105
Others 738 916 1,088 587 3,329
Big game
Roe deer 170 350 156 36 712
Wild goat 9 0 0 116 125
Deer 56 80 336 6 478
Fallow deer 0 156 92 6 254
Chamois 0 14 31 0 45
Mouflon 0 151 65 0 216
Wild boar 7,855 7,906 6,275 2,940 24,976
Source: Departament de Medi Ambient i Habitatge. Direcció General del Medi Natural.
Note: The hunting season begins at the in early October and ends in late February.

Last update: June 18, 2009.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Big game
Large animals, with low annual mortality and high life expectancy. In order to reduce the inevitable competence for growth, these species have a low reproduction rate. The margin for hunting them is lower, as these species do not have a natural capacity to recover their original values prior to each year's hunting season.
Small game
Small animals. Their populations typically have high reproduction rates that also enable them to have high breeding rates. They are some of the species considered to be prey, subjected to predators. Therefore, they can actively respond to severe reductions in number.

Methodological aspects

Hunting is a sport or recreational activity, therefore in order to do it, several aspects must be taken into account, such as the procedures to obtain licences and permits, the places where hunting is permitted, the time of the year it can be done, game species, etc. There is a also a Strategic Plan which aims to define a hunting model that is sustainable within nature and compatible with other territorial activities.

The small all the hunting species of birds and four mammal species: rabbit, European hare, Iberian hare and fox. Due to its abundance and general distribution in all the territory, it is the most common and popular hunting. The number of catches at the end of the season is higher as well, though the regeneration capacity in certain parameters allows the recovery of populations.

In our country, all the big game species belong to the ungulates group, which includes deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow (Dama dama), roe deer (Capreolus sp), chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), wild goat (Capra hispanica), wild boar (Sus scrofa) and mouflon (Ovis musimon). Though a wrong management and insufficient conservation made that many of these species disappear at their natural distribution areas, nowadays are model for habitats recovery and right management done in many years of work.

The captures shown in this table are those carried out in private and local hunting areas, controlled hunting areas and national reserves during the hunting season. The season is approved by means of an annual resolution which establishes which species may be hunted, the stipulated hunting periods and the special closures for each season.

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".