Increased grouse bag in Southern Norway

In total, 118 000 willow grouse and 64 000 ptarmigan were shot, according to the statistics Small game and roe deer hunting.

Willow grouse and ptarmigan are the most important small game species in Norway. The annual harvesting of grouse has declined from over half a million in the hunting year 1999/2000 to 120 000 in the hunting year 2012/2013, which was a record low. This huge decline can be attributed to several factors. As a result of the decreasing population of grouse, the landowners in many places have limited the number of hunters, and bag limits have been applied. In other places, hunting has been discontinued. Reduced hunting pressure because of the restrictions may partly explain the decrease.

Large increase in Sør-Trøndelag and Hedmark

Compared with the previous hunting year, the grouse bag increased by 7 000 in Hedmark and 11 000 in Sør-Trøndelag. Totally 10 000 and 17 000 grouse were shot in these counties respectively.

Most grouse harvested in Troms

Most grouse were shot in the county of Troms where 41 000 were harvested, a decrease of 11 per cent. In Finnmark, the hunters shot 32 000 grouse, a decrease of 37 per cent from the previous hunting year. In previous years, Finnmark has been at the top, and in 2005/2016 more than 100 000 grouse were felled here.