In this work we performed a study on the reasons for and against the inclusion of woodcock between game species. In this study we tried to include all the available published study and data that meet the objectives of the task. In Slovenia, the species is since 1993 on the list of protected species and is covered by the Regulation on the protection of endangered animal species (Ur. l. RS, no. 57/1993). Before that, it was a game speciesregulated by the Law on the protection, breeding and hunting wild game from 1976. Hunters in Slovenia are interested torelist it among the game species. This is strongly oposedby conservation organizations, mainly based on arguments that the woodcock rarely breeds in Slovenia and also because of possible mistakes and culling of other, more endangered species. We examined the historical hunting of woodcock in Slovenia in the period from 1985 to 1993. Culling ranged from 1,300 to 2,000 birds killed per year and spatially covered almost the entire country. Since woodcock is highly migratory species and nests to a greater extent in northern Europe, the existence of population in Slovenia does not depend on the success of nesting in our territory, but on the status of global migration population in Europe. We believe that taking into account the existing domestic and foreign data on the general biology of the species, woodcock may alsoin Slovenia became game species, because Slovenian hunting of species does not endangere species globally, the species is being hunted in majority of Europe. It would be however necessary to examine the impacts of hunting woodcock on non-target species that are more threatened.
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