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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2018
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Mallard 905 3,804 1,851 17,576 24,136
Gadwall 8 135 25 1,046 1,214
Northern pintail 0 16 10 605 631
Northern shoveler 0 179 21 3,113 3,313
Red-crested pochard 0 2 0 831 833
Eurasian wigeon 0 42 0 604 646
Woodcock 5,441 4,870 2,267 1,733 14,311
Snipe 148 1,094 339 5,726 7,307
Rock dove 5,392 3,550 24,558 8,574 42,074
Rabbit 20,454 8,175 122,806 69,350 220,785
Common starling 8,277 7,695 24,717 38,242 78,931
Pheasant 12,217 6,134 975 1,833 21,159
Coot 29 70 242 5,465 5,806
Lapwing 49 462 394 451 1,356
Magpie 6,700 1,891 22,888 7,460 38,939
Yellow-legged gull 6 427 13 319 765
Black-headed gull 58 71 19 523 671
Mistle thrush 1,542 442 2,112 6,506 10,602
Fieldfare 182 160 510 465 1,317
Common quail 14,869 4,495 19,841 2,926 42,131
Red fox 2,357 1,496 5,229 1,881 10,963
Hare 1,190 2,047 2,773 1,219 7,229
Common pochard 0 19 0 399 418
Tufted duck 0 1 0 39 40
Red-legged partridge 26,023 16,273 38,354 26,307 106,957
Grey partridge 0 85 197 0 282
Redwing 3,183 5,008 21,222 18,356 47,769
Song thrush 22,302 41,417 131,151 238,396 433,266
Turtle dove 3,990 4,876 10,103 5,081 24,050
Woodpigeon 65,103 32,117 48,277 62,574 208,071
Garganey 0 68 0 45 113
Teal 31 384 61 4,732 5,208
Stock dove 707 270 1,609 754 3,340
Big game
Roe deer 1,612 1,851 2,216 430 6,109
Wild goat 71 0 339 186 596
Deer 374 472 1,556 3 2,405
Fallow deer 0 302 710 25 1,037
Chamois 997 345 346 0 1,688
Mouflon 0 513 219 0 732
Wild boar 17,311 22,157 18,979 6,904 65,351
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Natural Environment.
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 "..".