Any village dweller in Crete will be familiar with the banging of shotguns being loosed off in the early morning during the official hunting season, which starts on 20th August and lasts until 28th February. (The season for the wild rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus, exceptionally, is extended to 10th March to help control over-population.) Hunting in Greece is highly regulated and what may not be known to the uninitiated is the large number of different species which can be hunted. There are different limits on the maximum numbers which can be taken, presumably based on assessments such as population size, reproduction rates and contribution to biodiversity.
Ministerial decision YPEN/DDD/88483/2815, published in the Government’s Official Journal on 3rd August lays down these limits for the current season and provides information about temporal and geographic exceptions and exclusions.
Table of permitted species
Among the species listed, turtle dove populations are in rapid decline across Europe and this bird has been classified as at risk since 2019 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Pressure from environmentalists has led to its hunting being banned in many European countries while in Greece it is still a popular game bird, although the government has imposed steadily decreasing annual quotas for the numbers which can be shot. The notes accompanying the list of permitted species specify the conditions attached to hunting the turtle dove and other species, as follows.
Special conditions for turtle doves
For the European turtle dove, there is an annual national quota of 36,000 birds, a reduction of 87% on the quota which was in force for the years 2013-2018. This figure reflects a reasonable culling of the offspring of the national reproductive population. Following completion of the established national quota, hunting of the species automatically ceases.
Monitoring of the daily and total take, up to the fulfilment of the quota, is carried out online via a mobile phone app created by the Hunting Federation of Greece. The app will be made available to hunters during the process of issuing the annual hunting permit or through hunting associations working with the Ministry of Environment and Energy, or through Forestry Services which issue hunting permits to isolated hunters.
Each hunter, on issue of their hunting licence will be provided with a QR code which gives access to the mobile app. Hunters of turtle doves throughout the country must:
1. Declare their daily bag through the app before leaving the hunting area.
2. Show the record of their daily bag to the relevant monitoring authorities.
Following completion of the national annual quota, all hunters will be informed of the termination of hunting of the species via a message on their mobile phone. For hunters who do not posses a smartphone, declaration of their bag will be carried out via SMS to 6976580000 before leaving the hunting area.
Special conditions for other birds
For the species Eurasian skylark, common quail, redwing, common starling, Eurasian wigeon, Eurasian teal, northern pintail, garganey, northern shoveller, common pochard, tufted duck, Eurasian coot, common snipe and northern lapwing, the European Commission is investigating their conservation status and obligatory declaration of numbers taken per hunter and per expedition has been instituted. The process is the same as for the turtle dove and takes place via the smartphone app of the Hunting Federation of Greece, but there is no national annual quota.
Hunters of these 14 species must:
1. Declare their daily bag through the app before leaving the hunting area.
2. Show the record of their daily bag to the relevant monitoring authorities.
For hunters who to not posses a smartphone, declaration of their bag will be carried out via SMS to 6976580000 before leaving the hunting area.
Detailed restrictions for other species can be found in the notes to the Ministerial Decision at:
https://dasarxeio.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/88483_2815_2026.pdf