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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2022
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Mallard 697 3,676 1,361 19,911 25,645
Gadwall 0 0 0 2,155 2,155
Northern pintail 0 0 0 1,999 1,999
Northern shoveler 0 0 0 4,492 4,492
Red-crested pochard 0 0 0 1,688 1,688
Eurasian wigeon 0 0 0 1,341 1,341
Woodcock 5,300 5,350 2,727 1,517 14,894
Snipe 0 273 0 4,916 5,189
Rock dove 5,255 2,636 14,436 13,778 36,105
Rabbit 20,531 5,404 248,172 74,149 348,256
Common starling 6,732 5,450 24,539 27,811 64,532
Pheasant 8,745 3,393 734 1,408 14,280
Coot 16 7 133 1,958 2,114
Lapwing .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Magpie 3,403 1,188 15,386 6,655 26,632
Yellow-legged gull 0 81 23 278 382
Black-headed gull 21 54 32 83 190
Mistle thrush 793 366 1,636 5,360 8,155
Fieldfare .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Common quail 2,076 2,715 13,354 490 18,635
Red fox 1,824 1,213 1,840 1,451 6,328
Hare 1,086 1,326 2,231 673 5,316
Common pochard .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Tufted duck .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Red-legged partridge 24,500 13,830 34,547 23,068 95,945
Grey partridge 12 32 50 0 94
Redwing 3,886 4,067 56,078 19,959 83,990
Song thrush 20,243 32,702 145,357 181,198 379,500
Turtle dove .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Woodpigeon 47,724 23,857 35,608 53,516 160,705
Garganey .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available .. Confidential data, low reliability or not available
Teal 2 134 24 5,798 5,958
Stock dove 1,102 162 680 1,063 3,007
Big game
Roe deer 3,012 2,431 4,860 1,501 11,804
Wild goat 133 0 0 5 138
Deer 508 710 2,278 0 3,496
Fallow deer 1 594 999 24 1,618
Chamois 84 363 340 0 787
Mouflon 0 511 269 0 780
Wild boar 21,960 25,393 15,694 7,689 70,736
Source: Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda.
Note: Captures during open, special or migratory game bird season in private hunting areas (APC), local hunting areas (ALC), controlled hunting areas (ZCC), national hunting reserves (RNC) and game reserves (RC).
(..) Confidential data, low reliability or not available.

Last update: December 21, 2023.

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 "..".