Number of hunters
Management
of game animals
Number of hunters
Hunting is a traditional form of recreation in Latvia. In 2000,
there were 34,778 registered hunters in Latvia (Driving
force indicator), which amounts to 1.4% of the permanent
resident number. In 2000, 945 new hunter licences were
issued (Driving force indicator).
Management of game animals
Even-toed ungulates (moose, red deer, roe deer and wild boar)
are the most popular game for hunting in Latvia. Hunting for these
species is limited, in accordance with population sizes in hunting
areas. Lower quotas are given when the population size of an
animal decreases, and vice versa.
Compared with the beginning of the 1990's, the hunting bag of
ungulates has decreased. At the beginning of the 1990's, the
population sizes of ungulates had reached levels that were
damaging to agriculture and forestry. A political decision was
made in the early 1990's to reduce the ungulate population by
increasing hunting quotas. The fall in animal numbers was also
caused by natural factors (food shortages, severe winters in 1994
and 1995) and also poaching. After the mid 1990's, the moose and
wild boar populations began to increase, but the red deer
population has stabilized.
The trends in population size have been followed by hunting
quotas: quotas have increased for the moose and wild boar, but for
the red deer have slightly changed.
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