Hunting in Morocco: Morocco offers many hunting possibilities: wild boar, partridge, turtle dove, quail, lark and thrush. The little bureaucracy, the uncontaminated nature and the large spaces are the visiting card for those who want to make a trip for hunting purposes, in one of the most hospitable Arab countries in the world.
On television, in newspapers, on the radio and on the Internet, we find dozens of reports on the Arab world every day, always often concerning aspects of a geopolitical nature.
Little is said, however, of the possibilities that the latter offers from the hunting point of view. With this article we want to open a window on a very popular country for its artistic beauties and more: Morocco.
This country that overlooks both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, in relation to hunting, offers many possibilities: it ranges from hunting wild boar to hunting larks, from hunting partridge to hunting thrush, from hunting quail to hunting for turtledove, up to snipe hunting. It can be said that, to some extent, Morocco is almost complete for huntable species. The unspoiled nature, three hundred days of sunshine a year, rapid and frequent air connections make Morocco the ideal destination for a hunting trip. Morocco is only a few hours away from Italy by flight, but the places seem suspended in the past and allow you to make a sort of journey through time. Few countries in the world offer such a variety of people, landscapes and environments. Sea, Atlas snow and desert sand are the natural elements that make up the natural environment of Morocco, which is very suggestive.
Here you can meet Berbers and Arabs, light men with blue and dark eyes with frizzy hair, houses of earth and straw, stone buildings, tents of nomads inhabited by people happy to offer a mint tea and always smiling. We see peasants plowing with ancient tools and for us obsolete and for which the only means of transport is the mule. Morocco is also a mosaic of colors: the sky is always the protagonist of the landscape both day and night. Not surprisingly, artists such as Matisse and Delacroix have immortalized the Moroccan sky in their paintings.
The hunting activity has undergone, in recent years, a real driving force from the Ministry of Agriculture and Tourism, which has launched a series of programs to increase hunting tourism through a series of exceptions to the calendar and reserving over a one and a half million hectares to hunt.
The strengths of hunting tourism in Morocco can be summarized as follows: only natural game, modest hunting pressure, low population density, always favorable climatic conditions, uncontaminated habitat, large areas reserved for tourist hunting, hospitality and finally little bureaucracy. All this makes Morocco an almost obligatory destination for those who practice hunting tourism abroad.
Let's see specifically the ways of hunting game in Morocco.
Wild boar hunting is practicable for six months a year, starting from October until March. Lark hunting takes place for about four months, from November to February. Partridge hunting is practiced during the months of October, November and December. Thrush hunting in November, December, January and February. Quail hunting in October, November, December and January. The turtle dove can be hunted during the months of July and August, while the snipe can be hunted for 5 months from September to January. The locations that host the reserves are different depending on the species of game you intend to hunt.
For hunting trips in Morocco it is mandatory to have your own rifles for a maximum of 2 (20 gauge and 12 gauge), but not rifled, while ammunition must be purchased on site. To give the reader an idea, indicatively a hunting trip in Morocco costs about 2000 euros for 3 days with 4 nights in a 3/4 star hotel, including a gun license, to which you must add the flight costs, as well as supplements related to hunting trips, such as cost of accompanying persons, cost for animals killed over the allowed number, cost of cartridges, possible rent for the dog, supplement for the number of hunters below the minimum required, and supplements related to the stay, such as alcoholic beverages, single room surcharge.
Compared to other destinations, Morocco manages to combine many interesting aspects, which cannot be missing in a hunting trip.