You are only allowed to hunt if you have a valid hunting licence. To obtain a hunting licence, you must successfully pass the hunting examination.

In the examination, you must demonstrate sufficient knowledge in five examination subjects:

• Animal species, wildlife biology, game management and agriculture and silviculture including game damage prevention
• Weapons law, weapons technology and handling hunting weapons (including handguns)
• Hunting operations, in particular hunting practice, types of hunting, hunting equipment, fishing gear, handling and use of hunting dogs, animal welfare and species-appropriate keeping of hunting dogs, safety regulations for hunting
• Hunting, animal welfare, nature conservation and landscape conservation law, hunting ethics
• Game diseases and treatment of hunted game (in particular recognising the most important game diseases, necessary hygiene measures and assessing the health safety of game as a foodstuff)

You can acquire this knowledge in a recognised training course in preparation for the hunting examination.

The course includes theoretical and practical training. It comprises at least 130 hours plus shooting training.