Active hunters

Hunter

A person that has paid hunting tax for the hunting season.

Small game

The species included in the statistics on small game hunting. Includes36 species of birds, mammals and roe deer.

Cervid hunters
Persons hunting the following cervid species: moose, red deer, wild reindeer and roe deer.

Small game hunters
Persons hunting the following small game species: capercaillie, black grouse, willow ptarmigan, common ptarmigan, hazel grouse, wood pigeon, raven, crow, magpie, jay, thrush, woodcock, snipe, mallard, common teal, wigeon, golden eye, merganser, tufted duck, common eider, long-tailed duck, common scoter, greylag goose, Canadian goose, pink-footed goose, shag, cormorant, gulls, beaver, mountain hare, red squirrel, red fox, badger, American mink, pine marten and stoat.

The hunting year
One hunting year runs from 1 April to 31 March the following year.

Hunting licence fee
Persons intending to hunt in Norway must pay a hunting licence fee to the Wildlife Fund. The fee is for the full hunting year. Payment of the fee is a prerequisite for hunting, but does not confer the right to hunt in any specific area.

The register of hunters
The Register of Hunters contains hunters licensed to hunt game in Norway. The register also provides an overview of the payment of the hunting licence fee; an annual fee for those who wish to engage in hunting. For more information, see the homepage.

License hunting

License hunting involves the use of lethal control to kill a specific number of individual of a given wildlife species motivated by the desire to reduce conflict or depredation. It is authorised under The Norwegian Nature Diversity Act. It is a requirement that hunters are registered as license hunters in the Hunter's register. Registration is made for each large carnivore species, for each separate hunting year.

Classification of smal game.

Name: Active hunters
Topic: Agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing

Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics

Municipality.

Annual.

Not relevant

Data sets are stored in accordance with Statistics Norway's guidelines for storing computer files.

The purpose of the statistics is to obtain an overview of the hunting practice in Norway. The statistics date back to the hunting year 1971/1972. From 1971/1972 to1985/1986 the hunters were asked what type of hunting they intended to carry out. For 1994/1995 and as from 1997/1998 the hunters are asked what type of hunting they have actually carried out. As from 2001/2002, the response rate has been high enough to produce statistics on the hunter's participation in different kinds of hunting.

From the hunting season 2008/2009 figures are published at the municipal level.

The statistics are commissioned by The Norwegian Environment Agency, and are an important tool in the national management of small game. Major users are central and local wildlife management, research and educational institutions, the media, interest groups and interested hunters.

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.

There are publised statistics over number of felled small game and roe deer and numbers of persons who have paid the hunting licence fee.

The Wildlife Act and the Statistics Act § 2-1.

Not relevant

The statistics cover all hunters that have paid the hunting licence fee.

The individual hunter.

Everyone that has paid the hunting licence fee for the relevant hunting year.

Every single hunter must submit a report to Statistics Norway by 1 May on the report form provided or via the Internet.

Regular controls and revisions are carried out on the incoming material. All forms are checked against the Register of Hunters using optical scanning. The forms are checked for absolute and possible errors, and errors are corrected during the revision of the forms.

The hunter's participation in different kinds of hunting is summarised and distributed by county and municipality of residence.

Not relevant

Not relevant

From 1971/1972 to1985/1986, the hunters were asked what type of hunting they intended to carry out. For 1994/1995 and from 1997/1998, the hunters were asked what type of hunting they actually carried out.

Hunters are required to report on the main type of hunting they have carried out. In some cases the hunters either incorrectly report that they have hunted moose, red deer and wild reindeer, or they forget to report. For small game and roe deer hunting, this information can be checked against animals felled. If no animals are felled, however, this information cannot be verified. Other sources of error include missing or incorrectly filled out information from the respondent, and errors during the optical reading of the report form.

Since the hunting year 2001/2002, the response rate has been higher than 90 per cent, and corrections due to non-response have not been carried out. There is reason to believe that the number of hunters without yield, or with very limited yield, is considerably higher among the hunters not reporting than those reporting. Consequently, the effect of non-response for the number of animals felled should be less than for non-reporting hunters.

Until the hunting year 2000/2001, the yield was estimated using different methods. The county level can have variations that are partly due to the calculation routines employed.

In addition, the figures may be affected by errors caused by incorrect and missing data.

Not relevant