ESTONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW 2009

3.4. Hunting
Hunting is closely related to the rural economy and
the field of nature conservation. Wild game is one component
of the usable natural resources, and the reasons
for the use of various species are diverse. Currently the
main focus of hunting lies on bi-ungulates (cloven hoofed
mammals), which are hunted for meat and for sport.
Hunting for middle-size and small predators (racoon
dog, fox, pine marten, mink) has acquired more of a
conservation character due to the depressed market for
furs; abundance of these species is regulated in connection
with their possible negative impact on other species.
In the case of beaver, the need to hunt this species is
related to the damage they cause, primarily in drained
forest areas. Large predators (wolf, bear, lynx) are hunted
mainly for sport; there are also efforts to regulate their
populations as they feed on bi-ungulates, which are in
the main sphere of interest of hunting. Aside from this,
wolves can cause significant losses for sheep farmers, and
bears pose a risk to apiculture.
The abundance of moose has fluctuated greatly in
the last 17 years and in recent years has stabilized at a
more or less acceptable level for different interest groups
(figure 3.18), where as a renewable hunting resource
the animal has a good potential for population growth.
At the same time, the forest damage caused by moose
remains within tolerable limits. At the beginning of
the 1990s, moose numbers had grown too high and the
damage caused to forests, consisting primarily of damage
to middle-aged stands of spruce, was beyond tolerable
limits. The obligatory hunting quotas set over the course
of a number of years were significantly higher than the
natural net population change and led to a rapid decline
in moose numbers. Thanks to corrections to the hunting
quotas, the declining trend was reversed in the mid-
1990s and the population continued to rise until 2005,
at which point the situation stabilized. As the abundance
of moose increased, the damage caused to forests grew,
especially to young stands of pine. To ease the situation,
in 2006–2007 moose were hunted slightly in excess of
natural population increase.
20 000
15 000
population size
hunting bag
10 000
number of individuals
5 000
0
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Figure 3.18. Moose census and hunting from 1990–2008. Data: Centre for Forest Protection and Siviculture.
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