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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2012
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 1,571 2,735 1,313 17,560 23,179
Woodcock 3,602 3,996 1,417 1,902 10,917
Snipe 93 638 0 4,192 4,923
Pigeon 6,647 937 10,593 5,480 23,657
Rabbit 23,059 11,886 74,161 85,115 194,221
Starling 6,987 12,880 14,587 43,916 78,370
Pheasant 9,847 5,679 1,621 115 17,262
Coot 31 0 25 4,934 4,990
Lapwing 249 604 126 391 1,370
Magpie 6,393 1,068 10,611 7,579 25,651
Yellow-legged gull 5 12 0 370 387
Black-headed gull 133 3 0 570 706
Common quail 9,797 3,085 20,348 9,884 43,114
Red fox 1,378 824 2,328 1,877 6,407
Hare 1,034 1,230 3,414 1,582 7,260
Red-legged partridge 27,021 13,431 40,410 33,747 114,609
Grey partridge 3 32 163 0 198
Thrush 28,964 40,366 130,827 665,848 866,005
Turtle dove 5,635 6,367 10,987 6,369 29,358
Wood pigeon 50,050 14,410 22,240 31,093 117,793
Garganey 6 29 10 38 83
Teal 2 201 64 3,281 3,548
Pochard 2 0 10 316 328
Xixella 157 99 1,749 247 2,252
Big game
Roe deer 355 487 728 83 1,653
Wild goat 86 0 0 266 352
Deer 120 248 685 10 1,063
Fallow deer 0 153 203 28 384
Chamois 23 316 214 0 553
Couflon 0 372 74 0 446
Wild boar 7,413 11,134 8,415 5,703 32,665
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Natural Environment.

Last update: April 26, 2013.

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 "..".