Good grouse hunting season in Arctic Norway

Hunter with hare and grouse. (Thomas Nilsen/The Independent Barents Observer)
Hunter with hare and grouse. (Thomas Nilsen/The Independent Barents Observer)
More than half of all grouse shot in Norway last season were hunted in the two northernmost counties; Troms and Finnmark.

Grouse hunters at the top of Norway can look back on a very good season. In Finnmark, 51,000 grouse where shot, up 71 percent from the hunting year 2014/2015, Statistics Norwayreports.

In Troms, Norway’s second northernmost county, the increase from the preceding hunting year was 22 percent , up to 46,000 grouse.

Grouse. (Thomas Nilsen/The Independent Barents Observer)
Grouse. (Thomas Nilsen/The Independent Barents Observer)

All other counties in Norway saw a decline. In total, 175,000 grouse were shot in the hunting year 2015/2016 making it the most important small game specie in Norway. Of these, 110,000 were willow grouse while 64,000 ptarmigan were shot.

Over the last 15 years, the number of grouse harvested in Norway has steadily gone down from half a million in 2000/2001.

Related stories from around the North:

Canada:  Enough M’Clintock Channel polar bears to increase hunting quota?, Radio Canada International

Finland: Heritage hunting in Finnish forests, Yle News

Iceland:  Feature Interview – Hunting culture under stress in Arctic, Eye on the Arctic

United States:  New rules proposed for Alaska predator hunting, Alaska Public Radio Network

 

Thomas Nilsen, The Independent Barents Observer

For more news from the Barents region visit The Independent Barents Observer.

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