Moose hunting

Hunting ground

The basic territorial unit sanctioned for hunting cervids and allotted felling licences.

Qualifying area

The area forming the basis for hunting licences allotted by the municipalities. For moose and red deer, the area includes mainly woodland and bogs.

Cervids

Cervids includes moose (Alces alces), red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus).

Issued licences

The number of licences allotted to a hunting ground by a municipalitiy.

Cervids felled

The number of cervids felled in regular hunting.

Selective shooting

Licences issued with an obligation for a certain distribution of animals felled, by calf, 1½ year-old animals, adult males and adult females.

Per cent felled

Shot animals as a percentage of licences issued.

The hunting year

One hunting year lasts as from 1 April to 31 March the following year.

Hunting period valid until 31 March 2028

The regular hunting period for moose hunting is 25 September to 23 December.

Classification of cervids after age and sex

Name: Moose hunting
Topic: Agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing

Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics

County and municipality. For the hunting years 2007/08 and 2008/09 figures on municipality level are based on the hunting area where the municipality is responsible for the administration. This area may include area in adjacent municipalities. Previous years, figures on municipality level were based on hunting taking place within the municipality borders. Since the municipality figures for these two years are not comparable from one year to another, the statistics from the hunting year 2008/09 was published on county level. As from the hunting year 2009/10, the data are collected and published by municipality.

The statistics are published annually. Preliminary figures are published in March of the year after the hunt has ended. Final figures are published 10 weeks later.

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The purpose of the statistics is to show the extent of moose hunting in Norway. Statistics on felled animals date back to 1889. Until 1951, the reports were collected from the police and covered all moose killed, both those that were shot through legal hunting and those that died in other ways, to the extent this was reported. After 1952, the statistics only cover moose legally killed through ordinary hunting.

The most important users of these statistics are The Norwegian Environment Agency, the County Departments of Environmental Affairs, professional bodies, the media, research and educational institutions and the local wildlife authorities.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

Statistics are also published on red deer hunting and wild reindeer hunting, as well as Non-harvest mortality of cervids.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

The statistics include all legal hunting of moose in Norway.

The responsible person for each hunting ground report the results of the hunt to the municipality. The municipality is responsibel for reporting aggregated data for the municipality.

Total census.

The municipal authorities send forms for reporting to the responsible persons in each hunting ground together with the licence. These responsible persons have a duty to report back to the municipality within 10 days after the end of the hunting period. The municipality then has a duty to send reports to Statistics Norway within 3 weeks.

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data. Sum checks and checks of the number of animals felled compared with licences issued are undertaken. Where necessary, the municipal authorities are contacted to clarify cases of doubt.

The number of felled animals and number of hunting licences are summarised and distributed by country, county and municipality.

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

The statistics are comparable back to 1952.

For the hunting years 2007/08 and 2008/09 figures on municipality level were based on the hunting area where the municipality was responsible for the administration. This area may include hunting area in adjacent municipalities. Previous years, figures on municipality level were based on the hunting area within the municipality border. This results in a break in time series for the statistics for these two years. Municipalities not managing any hunting area themselves will lack in the statistics. This change is due to more cooperation between municipalities because of expanding hunting grounds. In the hunting year 2007/08 more than 60 municipalities are affected by this change. As from the hunting year 2009/10, data will be collected and published at municipality level.

The report work is closely connected to the municipality's management of the stock of moose and the data quality is regarded as very good. Some big hunting grounds cross municipal borders. In some cases this makes it difficult to tell in which municipality some of the animals were felled. The distribution of these animals is determined by the local wildlife authorities. This does not affect the total number of moose shot.

The level of non-response is negligible. Reporting to Statistics Norway is compulsory for all municipalities. Statistics Norway and the county management remind municipalities that have not forwarded the reports within three weeks from the end of the hunting season. In that way all municipalities are covered.