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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2015
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 1,078 2,804 1,013 23,277 28,172
Woodcock 2,400 3,093 931 1,545 7,969
Snipe 121 680 227 4,055 5,083
Pigeon 2,909 1,821 16,426 6,219 27,375
Rabbit 15,844 7,378 68,677 63,610 155,509
Crow 0 0 0 0 0
Parrot 0 0 0 0 0
Starling 6,232 6,095 16,298 58,546 87,171
Pheasant 6,589 4,373 1,220 301 12,483
Coot 4 12 117 5,324 5,457
Lapwing 191 380 179 300 1,050
Magpie 4,790 1,421 15,544 10,259 32,014
Yellow-legged gull 0 15 0 380 395
Black-headed gull 482 10 0 1,035 1,527
Common quail 2,282 5,270 21,241 2,835 31,628
Red fox 1,104 910 1,510 1,863 5,387
Hare 866 1,507 1,968 1,165 5,506
Red-legged partridge 18,456 12,534 26,515 28,017 85,522
Grey partridge 181 103 82 10 376
Thrush 18,200 22,685 85,497 305,823 432,205
Turtle dove 4,131 5,592 9,672 12,174 31,569
Wood pigeon 37,624 15,390 25,281 34,285 112,580
Garganey 0 0 0 0 0
Teal 0 0 0 0 0
Pochard 0 0 0 0 0
Xixella 526 124 1,714 236 2,600
Big game
Roe deer 785 746 679 176 2,386
Wild goat 52 0 0 210 262
Deer 228 265 548 1 1,042
Fallow deer 2 142 674 3 821
Chamois 110 344 86 6 546
Couflon 2 230 140 0 372
Wild boar 11,215 13,020 6,760 5,452 36,447
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food.

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 "..".