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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2016
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 943 2,650 1,381 19,373 24,347
Woodcock 3,901 4,431 1,875 1,254 11,461
Snipe 112 680 317 4,987 6,096
Rock dove 5,056 3,033 18,911 4,913 31,913
Rabbit 19,733 8,964 100,873 55,877 185,447
Starling 8,099 9,007 16,228 24,255 57,589
Pheasant 10,292 5,940 1,338 549 18,119
Coot 3 57 174 1,767 2,001
Lapwing 151 376 205 265 997
Magpie 6,337 2,833 18,531 6,292 33,993
Yellow-legged gull 11 34 28 466 539
Black-headed gull 122 25 31 835 1,013
Mistle thrush 1,031 892 2,404 5,572 9,899
Fieldfare 183 178 245 140 746
Common quail 3,902 3,303 20,380 2,526 30,111
Red fox 2,005 1,359 3,105 1,643 8,112
Hare 857 1,937 2,647 1,055 6,496
Red-legged partridge 28,897 15,857 36,929 27,561 109,244
Grey partridge 0 157 103 0 260
Symphodus (Crenilabrus) doderleini 3,560 4,989 17,714 15,297 41,560
Wrasse 19,943 25,597 134,419 204,655 384,614
Turtle dove 4,729 4,729 10,035 12,047 31,540
Wood pigeon 50,687 25,133 40,991 43,354 160,165
Garganey 0 102 25 76 203
Teal 67 265 103 3,643 4,078
Xixella 666 314 1,065 410 2,455
Big game
Roe deer 865 1,178 1,266 222 3,531
Wild goat 0 0 0 300 300
Deer 299 358 526 0 1,183
Fallow deer 16 197 156 0 369
Chamois 65 66 124 0 255
Couflon 0 261 40 0 301
Wild boar 13,609 17,106 12,673 5,159 48,547
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food.
Note: Valid season captures.

Last update: March 22, 2017.

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 "..".