Hunting 2008

The number of hunters who paid the game management fee in 2008 was 307,000, of which 5 per cent were women. Not all hunted, however. A total of 226,000 hunted, of which 192,000 hunted for small game and 114,000 hunted for deer. A total of 81,000 hunted both small game and deer.

Of those who hunted for small game, 183,000 did so with firearms and 36,000 set traps. The total number of small-game hunting days for those who used firearms was 2.5 million and for those setting traps 1.2 million. Deer-hunting days totalled 1.6 million.

A total of 142,000 hunters bagged small game. The most usual game species were mallard and arctic hare. Every third small game hunter bagged at least one hare and almost as many bagged at least one mallard. The arctic hare bag tally totalled 193,000. Raccoon dogs were bagged to a total of 154,000, European hares 87,000 and foxes 63,000. The raccoon dog bag tally for 2008 was the largest compiled in the statistics for 1972–2008.

Waterfowl were hunted to a total of over half a million: of these, over half were mallards. A total of 272,000 mallards, 96,000 teals, 62,000 goldeneyes, 41,000 widgeons and 57,000 other types of waterfowl were bagged. Of the other game birds, wood pigeons were hunted the most. A total of 157,000 of these were bagged.

The grouse bag tally remained much smaller in 2008 than that in previous years. Particularly with regard to the willow grouse, the bag reduction was extreme. The willow grouse bag in 2008 – 31,000 birds – was only one-third that of the average bag during the previous five years. Other grouse bagged in 2008 totalled approximately 60% of the average bag during the previous five years. The black grouse bag came to 114,000, hazel grouse 57,000 and capercaillie 26,000.

In 2008, 57,100 moose, 25,600 white-tailed deer and 4,200 roe-deer were shot. A total of 162 fallow deer and 89 Finnish forest reindeer were shot. Economically speaking, the moose is overwhelmingly the most significant game animal. The calculated meat yield of the entire game bag was approximately 10 million kilogrammes, of which the share of moose was 7.5 million and other deer 1.3 million kilogrammes.

The calculated value of the entire game bag was over MEUR 70. The share of deer in this respect was MEUR 52.