Hunting and small-game bag 2017

A total of some 306,000 hunters paid the annual game management fee in 2017. 200,200 of them actually engaged in hunting. The number of hunters has decreased in the 2010s, but the numbers have remained roughly the same for the past three years.
Fewer grouses were caught than in the past few years. The bag of grouses in 2017 was 40% lower than the bag in 2016. Approximately 32,800 black grouses, 13,400 wood grouses (capercaillies), 15,500 hazel grouses and 14,800 willow grouses were caught.
Waterfowl were caught in same way as in the previous year. The bag was roughly the same size as in 2016. Mallard is by far the most commonly hunted waterfowl in Finland, followed by teal. In 2017, 180,200 mallards and 93,000 teals, including garganeys, were caught.
The most commonly hunted animal was the wood pigeon (210,200 birds). The average bag of wood pigeons for one hunter was ten birds.
Fewer small predators were caught than in the previous year: some 30% less raccoon dogs were hunted than in the previous year. The bag amounted to around 150,000 animals. The next most commonly hunted small predators were mink and fox (some 50,000 both), which is as much as in the previous year.
The number of mountain hares caught remained small (81,000). The total number of animals hunted last year was only one-fifth of the record-high bags in the 1990s.