Hunting in Cyprus: 2026–2027 season, licence, bans and fines

Checked: 27 October 2026.

Hunting in Cyprus: at a glance

Hunting in Cyprus is allowed only in designated areas, on set days and with a valid hunting licence. The 2026–2027 season for resident game — hare, chukar partridge and black francolin — opens on Sunday 1 November 2026 and runs until 27 December 2026, while a separate thrush season begins on 3 January 2027.

Dates, areas and bag limits are set by decrees each season. For 2026–2027 they were issued on 27 and 31 July 2026, so last season’s rules do not apply to the new one.

Below: who regulates hunting, how to get and renew a licence, where hunting is banned, what a hunter must do on an outing and what penalties the law sets. This article is for reference only: before every outing, check the maps and decrees on the official website.

Who regulates hunting

Hunting and wildlife in Cyprus are the responsibility of the Game and Fauna Service of the Ministry of Interior (Υπηρεσία Θήρας και Πανίδας). Its website and documents still also use its former name, the Game Fund (Ταμείο Θήρας).

All the rules are based on the Protection and Management of Wild Birds and Game Law 152(I)/2003, as amended. Under it, the Minister of Interior designated 33 game species for the 2026–2027 season, and the Head of the Service signed the decree on hunting areas and dates.

The Service’s head office is in Nicosia, tel. 22867786. District offices: Nicosia 22662428, Limassol 25343800, Larnaca and Famagusta 24805128, Paphos 26306211.

2026–2027 season: dates and bag limits

Summer hunting of migratory birds opened on 23 August 2026 and closed in September in the main areas and at the end of October in some others. Now the main part of the season begins: resident game on Wednesdays and Sundays from 1 November to 27 December 2026, 17 outings in all.

Under the decree, each hunter may take no more than one hare, four partridges and one francolin per outing. During the resident game season a hunter may have up to four dogs, and hunting is allowed only from sunrise to sunset.

The thrush season opens on 3 January 2027 and runs on Wednesdays and Sundays until 28 February 2027, plus Saturday 27 February. Driving thrushes with dogs is banned: a dog may be used only to retrieve shot birds, and only a dog whose microchip number is entered on the licence may be taken along.

Getting and renewing a licence

The first hunting licence is applied for online: register on the Service’s platform gws.moi.gov.cy and submit an application. You can apply from the age of 17, provided you have had no conviction under the wild birds and game law in the last two years.

The Service then invites the applicant by email to lessons and an exam covering hunting, dog and firearms law, species identification, gun handling and hunting ethics. After the exam, the applicant uploads a hunting gun possession licence — issued by the police under its own procedure — and only then is the hunting licence issued.

Under the law, the application for a first licence costs €30, training and the exam €60, and issue of the licence €77. Annual renewal costs €77 up to the age of 65, €43 from 65 to 79 and nothing from 80; licences can be renewed from 1 August at jccsmart.com or at a bank, and fees were not raised for the 2026–2027 season.

Where hunting is banned

The law bans hunting in towns, tourist facilities and villages, and within 500 metres of their edges. Hunting is also banned within 200 metres of an isolated house, at military installations and within 300 metres of them, on private land fenced higher than 150 centimetres, and anywhere a decree has not opened to hunting.

During the resident game season, hunting is also banned within 200 metres of motorways and 100 metres of main roads. In addition, the 2026 decree on temporarily prohibited hunting areas lists closed areas by district and remains in force until 15 August 2027.

Separate restrictions relate to foot-and-mouth disease: hunting is banned near livestock farms in restricted zones, and hunting dogs may not be exercised within 10 kilometres of farms with confirmed cases. No paper maps were printed this season: hunting area boundaries are available only on the Service’s website and in the Artemis Cy app.

Rules on an outing

On every outing a hunter must carry their hunting licence, gun possession licence and identity card. During the resident game season, hunters and their companions must wear a hunter-orange cap or outer clothing that is at least 30% orange, and such an item must also be kept in the car.

Every bird and animal taken must be recorded in the Artemis Cy app; for the 2026–2027 season a separate decree also allows the bag to be reported by SMS to the numbers given for each district. Turtle doves and quail are recorded immediately, other game before the hunter gets back into the vehicle to change area or end the outing.

Dogs may be transported only in special cages. It is forbidden to light fires, to shoot at birds perched on electricity or telephone wires, and to use nets, limesticks, traps, snares or electronic call devices.

Fines and penalties

The law provides for out-of-court fines: €170 for each head of game over the bag limit, €500 for a loaded gun in a vehicle, €150 if wounded game is not killed at once, €100 for an unrecorded bag, €50 for hunting without orange clothing and €25 if a hunter fails to produce a licence. The amounts are taken from the consolidated text of the law, and a case may go to court.

For offences with no specific fine, the law provides for up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to €20,000, or both. Hunting without a renewed licence also means paying all fees due since the last renewal.

According to the Cyprus Mail, on the opening day of the season, 23 August 2026, police carried out more than 300 checks and issued 12 on-the-spot fines. Before going out, check the decrees and maps on the Game and Fauna Service website; the information in this article was checked as of 27 October 2026.

Continue planning

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• The Flora of Cyprus: Natural Zones, Endemic Species and Conservation
• Hiking routes and nature trails in Cyprus

Official sources

• Game and Fauna Service: maps and decrees 2026–2027
• Decree on hunting areas and dates 2026–2027 (PDF)
• Game species decree 2026–2027 (PDF)
• Temporary prohibited hunting areas decree 2026 (PDF)
• FAQ: hunting licence
• Consolidated Wild Birds and Game Law (PDF)
• Cyprus Mail: Twelve hunters fined on first day of season (24 Aug 2026)

A no-hunting zone sign in Cyprus · Photo: Animalibre · CC BY-SA 4.0 · converted to WebP and resized.