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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2017
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 987 3,035 1,203 22,034 27,259
Woodcock 5,303 4,162 2,033 1,393 12,891
Snipe 154 1,083 290 5,379 6,906
Rock dove 5,857 2,583 17,100 6,134 31,674
Rabbit 18,902 7,356 104,873 64,538 195,669
Starling 9,977 9,253 18,469 36,553 74,252
Pheasant 11,623 6,798 785 829 20,035
Coot 50 54 83 5,693 5,880
Lapwing 193 395 238 431 1,257
Magpie 7,328 1,350 18,096 7,957 34,731
Yellow-legged gull 36 339 32 536 943
Black-headed gull 165 46 30 871 1,112
Mistle thrush 1,408 1,050 1,821 5,473 9,752
Fieldfare 151 132 221 376 880
Common quail 4,407 2,360 17,865 1,733 26,365
Red fox 2,449 1,267 3,138 1,761 8,615
Hare 1,277 1,526 2,355 1,229 6,387
Red-legged partridge 29,522 12,986 35,816 22,909 101,233
Grey partridge 0 88 176 0 264
Symphodus (Crenilabrus) doderleini 3,249 5,371 19,728 18,080 46,428
Wrasse 21,645 36,623 130,908 283,057 472,233
Turtle dove 4,013 3,860 8,403 5,404 21,680
Wood pigeon 63,219 25,888 30,650 60,441 180,198
Garganey 0 25 0 52 77
Teal 31 162 57 5,609 5,859
Xixella 801 256 799 396 2,252
Big game
Roe deer 1,383 1,325 1,614 307 4,629
Wild goat 43 0 0 251 294
Deer 364 357 1,011 2 1,734
Fallow deer 21 268 350 24 663
Chamois 135 382 206 0 723
Couflon 3 534 191 0 728
Wild boar 18,921 19,624 12,231 6,314 57,090
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food.
Note: Valid season captures.

Last update: October 14, 2019.

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 "..".