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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2009
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 1,317 2,621 1,289 13,860 19,087
Woodcock 3,843 3,099 1,185 1,383 9,510
Snipe 123 342 180 2,733 3,378
Pigeon 2,563 3,714 12,761 4,137 23,175
Rabbit 24,106 12,948 94,391 68,905 200,350
Starling 6,128 12,717 13,530 54,043 86,418
Pheasant 11,613 10,045 2,809 5,131 29,598
Coot 105 23 39 1,061 1,228
Jay 0 0 0 0 0
Magpie 5,043 1,517 11,256 5,062 22,878
Common quail 15,345 16,546 17,439 15,293 64,623
Red fox 1,159 834 1,647 1,366 5,006
Hare 1,004 1,283 6,132 1,168 9,587
Red-legged partridge 30,226 20,741 44,437 37,860 133,264
Grey partridge 0 140 177 0 317
Thrush 26,628 49,554 86,470 843,961 1,006,613
Turtle dove 4,843 8,747 9,657 5,648 28,895
Wood pigeon 34,681 14,877 19,176 25,854 94,588
Others 177 0 589 218 984
Big game
Roe deer 86 212 162 28 488
Wild goat 17 0 0 57 74
Deer 43 159 321 7 530
Fallow deer 0 160 18 0 178
Chamois 5 35 35 0 75
Mouflon 0 175 10 0 185
Wild boar 5,917 8,283 4,820 3,218 22,238
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: March 23, 2010.

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 "..".