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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2013
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 1,259 2,488 957 17,460 22,164
Woodcock 3,486 4,047 1,392 1,800 10,725
Snipe 105 697 247 4,946 5,995
Pigeon 5,465 1,347 11,394 4,225 22,431
Rabbit 21,985 10,917 58,356 77,901 169,159
Starling 0 11,932 12,005 62,407 86,344
Pheasant 10,240 5,630 1,644 70 17,584
Coot 16 1 105 6,068 6,190
Lapwing 223 722 53 175 1,173
Magpie 6,825 1,169 11,951 6,560 26,505
Yellow-legged gull 0 39 0 450 489
Black-headed gull 130 40 0 713 883
Common quail 12,285 6,892 17,159 2,332 38,668
Red fox 1,493 900 2,401 1,679 6,473
Hare 21 1,402 2,710 1,434 5,567
Red-legged partridge 20,611 12,250 31,824 24,794 89,479
Grey partridge 0 131 1,320 0 1,451
Thrush 785 34,020 116,840 596,282 747,927
Turtle dove 4,940 6,241 6,175 7,697 25,053
Wood pigeon 46,191 14,042 17,890 29,478 107,601
Garganey 5 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 10 32 47
Teal 17 198 19 4,864 5,098
Pochard 0 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 10 441 451
Xixella 455 208 1,257 299 2,219
Big game
Roe deer 455 701 682 114 1,952
Wild goat 77 .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available 0 207 284
Deer 276 305 756 22 1,359
Fallow deer 0 165 167 31 363
Chamois 24 296 322 0 642
Couflon 0 347 62 0 409
Wild boar 9,278 12,495 8,535 5,085 35,393
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Natural Environment.
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.

Last update: July 7, 2016.

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 "..".