Skip to main content

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces

Hunting. Captures. By species. Provinces 2019
Barcelona Girona Lleida Tarragona Catalonia
Small game
Mallard 780 3,950 1,092 16,651 22,473
Gadwall 2 49 33 1,168 1,252
Northern pintail 2 14 12 647 675
Northern shoveler 2 124 16 3,234 3,376
Red-crested pochard 2 6 0 697 705
Eurasian wigeon 2 10 2 563 577
Woodcock 4,385 5,790 2,142 1,377 13,694
Snipe 127 1,335 286 5,216 6,964
Rock dove 4,518 4,321 18,081 7,677 34,597
Rabbit 18,024 6,830 115,243 69,712 209,809
Common starling 5,451 9,746 16,903 34,460 66,560
Pheasant 7,889 5,377 686 1,644 15,596
Coot 11 55 65 4,165 4,296
Lapwing 11 248 252 653 1,164
Magpie 4,933 1,893 21,742 8,527 37,095
Yellow-legged gull 15 362 0 291 668
Black-headed gull 22 27 1 266 316
Mistle thrush 936 344 1,619 5,740 8,639
Fieldfare 265 75 637 154 1,131
Common quail 1,678 2,978 14,961 3,920 23,537
Red fox 1,617 1,480 2,354 1,567 7,018
Hare 864 1,620 2,031 1,030 5,545
Common pochard 2 12 1 297 312
Tufted duck 2 1 2 18 23
Red-legged partridge 24,790 16,615 34,258 25,531 101,194
Grey partridge 2 99 127 0 228
Redwing 2,504 6,753 12,099 15,711 37,067
Song thrush 15,458 43,584 88,714 178,784 326,540
Turtle dove 2,961 6,091 7,932 5,097 22,081
Woodpigeon 52,797 32,539 37,488 68,531 191,355
Garganey 2 58 0 26 86
Teal 17 287 48 4,542 4,894
Stock dove 418 162 495 676 1,751
Big game
Roe deer 1,578 1,774 2,447 639 6,438
Wild goat 57 0 0 106 163
Deer 392 491 1,460 2 2,345
Fallow deer 0 229 684 23 936
Chamois 96 314 308 0 718
Mouflon 0 438 157 0 595
Wild boar 13,529 18,827 11,514 6,130 50,000
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Food and Natural Environment.
Note: Valid season captures.

Last update: November 5, 2020.

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 "..".