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Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2010
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Duck 1,583 2,077 1,909 15,877 21,446
Woodcock 3,663 3,124 1,631 1,476 9,894
Snipe 112 309 316 5,063 5,800
Pigeon 2,323 2,549 8,834 4,958 18,664
Rabbit 24,428 11,653 97,900 70,180 204,161
Starling 6,039 12,474 18,368 25,385 62,266
Pheasant 10,652 7,996 3,203 2,307 24,158
Coot 30 4 105 1,166 1,305
Fredeluga 167 420 75 304 966
Jay 0 0 0 0 0
Magpie 4,521 1,079 12,208 6,050 23,858
Gavià argentat 2 59 0 420 481
Gavina vulgar 100 14 0 550 664
Common quail 13,669 4,178 25,389 699 43,935
Red fox 1,119 738 2,761 1,868 6,486
Hare 1,281 1,157 3,966 1,302 7,706
Red-legged partridge 28,158 15,072 51,293 24,243 118,766
Grey partridge 0 34 342 0 376
Thrush 24,154 44,102 123,834 715,680 907,770
Turtle dove 4,655 6,905 14,152 5,865 31,577
Wood pigeon 36,568 15,333 20,698 26,945 99,544
Xarrasclet 12 0 0 114 126
Xarxet comú 5 41 113 2,576 2,735
Xibec 0 0 33 444 477
Others 261 288 1,284 257 2,090
Big game
Roe deer 142 252 232 46 672
Wild goat 0 0 0 221 221
Deer 146 218 368 12 744
Fallow deer 0 187 63 0 250
Chamois 12 17 213 0 242
Mouflon 0 159 9 0 168
Wild boar 6,959 10,048 5,711 3,229 25,947
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Natural Environment.
Note: The hunting season begins at the in early October and ends in late February.

Last update: May 18, 2011.

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 "..".