Hunting 2009

he number of hunters who paid the game management fee in 2009 was 308,000. Not allhunted, however. A total of 229,000 hunted, of which 194,000 hunted for small game and122,000 hunted for deer. Every third hunter hunted both small game and deer.

Of those who hunted for small game, 190,000 did so with fi rearms and 36,000 set traps.The total number of small-game hunting days for those who used fi rearms was 2.4 million andfor those setting traps 1.6 million. Deer-hunting days totalled 1.7 million.

A total of 145,000 hunters bagged small game. The most usual game species were mallardand arctic hare. Every third small game hunter bagged at least one mallard and almost as manybagged at least one hare. The arctic hare bag tally totalled 201,000. Raccoon dogs were baggedto a total of 172,000, European hares 89,000 and foxes 59,000. The raccoon dog bag tally for 2009 was the largest compiled in the statistics for 1972–2009. Waterfowl were hunted to a total of over half a million: of these, half were mallards. A total of 263,000 mallards, 109,000 teals,49,000 widgeons, 43,000 goldeneyes and 80,000 other types of waterfowl were bagged. Of theother game birds, wood pigeons were hunted the most.

The grouse bag tally remained much smaller in 2009 than that in previous years. Willowgrouse was protected in almost whole country, so the bag reduction was extreme. The willowgrouse bag in 2009 was 4,600 birds. The black grouse bag came to 101,000, hazel grouse60,000 and capercaillie 21,000.

In 2009, 62,000 moose, 26,000 white-tailed deer and 3,700 roe-deer were shot. A total of150 fallow deer and 40 Finnish forest reindeer were shot. Economically speaking, the mooseis overwhelmingly the most signifi cant game animal. The calculated meat yield of the entiregame bag was approximately 11 million kilogrammes, of which the share of moose was 8,2million and other deer 1.2 million kilogrammes. The calculated value of the entire game bagwas over MEUR 78. The share of deer in this respect was MEUR 56.

Statistic’s homepage: www.rktl.fi /english/statistics
Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute 2010. Hunting 2009. Riista- ja kalatalous
– Tilastoja 6/2010. Offi cial Statistics of Finland – Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery. 34 p