Why is squirrel hunting allowed in Norway?

"Let the squirrels live" is the title of the 1 November editorial in Aftenposten, Norway’s largest newspaper (in Norwegian).

Many others have reacted strongly on social media to the fact that the opening day of Norway’s annual squirrel hunt was on the same date.

Banned in Sweden, allowed in Norway

Squirrel hunting is banned in Sweden.

In Norway, the Norwegian Association of Hunters and Anglers (NJFF) argues that squirrel hunting should be allowed to continue, because it has a long tradition and because they believe the squirrel population is stable and can sustain a regulated harvest.

Only a little more than a thousand squirrels a year are harvested in Norway today. The number ranges from 800 to 1800, according to Statistics Norway.

“We have good hunting statistics here in Norway through Statistics Norway figures. But we don’t have good statistics on how many squirrels there are,” says Lasse Frost Eriksen.

Eriksen is a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA).

A report that five NINA researchers published a few years ago came to the same conclusion.

But the researchers have no evidence to indicate that today’s squirrel hunting poses any threat to the population.

Norway’s most important fur-bearing animal

It is absolutely true that squirrel hunting has traditions in Norway.

Not very long ago, squirrels were clearly Norway’s most important fur-bearing animal.

In prosperous years, around 600 000 squirrel skins were exported from Norway to other countries as late as the 1930s. The price for a squirrel pelt was around three Norwegian kroner at the time, according to the book Jaktzoologi (Hunting zoology) from 1945, published by Cappelen.

Other sources state that one could get as much as five kroner for a squirrel pelt before World War II.

That was about the same amount of money as could be earned for a day’s public relief work in the pre-war years, Tore Fossum writes in an article in Alfarheim, the Elverum history association’s yearbook, in 2004.

Skilled hunters could harvest up to 20 animals a day. Many poor families in Norway are said to have been completely dependent on this extra income. You can read about this and more in an article from the Anno Norwegian Forest Museum (in Norwegian).

Found all over the country

It was the squirrel’s attractive dark and dense winter pelt that buyers wanted, referred to as gråverk or gråpels in Norwegian.

Squirrel hunting took place in much of Norway. Squirrels were and still are found in most forest places in the country.

Then as today, the hunt took place from 1 November to the end of March.

With the onset of summer, the squirrel skins became almost worthless.

Shot with a gallery rifle

Hunters tracked squirrels in the snow at twilight.

They often used a dog, or one person – the shooter – would stand still at the base of a tree while the other person circled around the tree trunk. The squirrel would move to keep itself opposite the circling hunter, giving the shooter a clear shot.

The most commonly used weapon was a .22 calibre gallery rifle or a shotgun with fine pellets, to minimize damaging the skin, relates author Bjørn Brænd in an article about Gråverk – the squirrel’s winter coat – at Sollia.net.

The squirrel was immediately skinned upon being shot.

The skin was turned inside out and stretched on a small stretcher for drying. The hunters were very careful in how they treated the pelts.

The interest in squirrel hunting quickly declined after World War II, as fox and mink fur farming increased.

Right or wrong to shoot squirrels?

The squirrel's most important food sources are spruce and pine seeds, and in good seed years the squirrel population can increase sharply.

Two litters of young a year are common, but in an abundant seed year squirrels can produce even more litters of young.

The year 1922 is said to have been a particularly seed-rich year and was probably also the peak year for squirrel hunting in Norway.

“The approximately one thousand squirrels that are now shot each year are a far cry from the half a million animals that were harvested in some years before the war,” says Eriksen at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA).

“This could indicate that there were more squirrels at that time than there are today.”

“But we lack good population estimates for squirrels in Norway. Even though we have fairly good hunting statistics and many observations in the Norwegian species map Artskart, we don’t know how well this reflects the overall squirrel population.”

The NINA researcher will not comment on whether it is right or wrong to shoot squirrels.

“We are researchers who work to provide the knowledge base. Then it is up to the regulatory body to consider whether or not to allow squirrel hunting.

But the opposition to squirrel hunting is clear, at least in Aftenposten's editorial, which states, "Unfortunately, Norwegian hunters are still free to knock squirrels down from the trees all winter. But they could also choose not to and instead focus their sights on prey that’s more fit for consumption. It should be a pretty simple choice.”

References and sources:

Pedersen, H.C., Follestad, A., Lorentsen, S.-H., Nilsen, E.B. & Stokke, B.G.: Statusoversikt for jaktbart småvilt: Bestandsstatus og utviklingstrender siste 5 år. (Status overview for huntable small game: Population status and development trends over the last five years), NINA Report no. 1917, published 2021.

Grundsetmarten, jakten og skinnhandelen (The Grundsetmarten market, hunting and the skin trade), article by Tore Fossum published in the Elverum history association yearbook Alfarheim in 2004.

Sollia.net's article about Gråverk, written by Bjørn Brænd, 2023.

Aftenposten's editorial, 1 November 2025.

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Read the Norwegian version of this article at forskning.no

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