game

All wild land animals that are hunted for meat. The term also designates the meat from these animals. In the tropics, game is called “bush meat” (1 million tons a year). There are two main categories of game: • Game birds: wild ducks, pheasants, doves, partridges…, • Ground game: mammals (wild rabbits, hares, boars, red deer, roe deer, hinds, fallow deer…). There are also the following subdivisions: • Water fowl for birds hunted in swamps or alongside ponds or rivers (wild ducks, moorhens, etc.), • Large game for mammals like boars or cervids. The meat of animals usually hunted but domesticated for consumption (quails, pheasants, etc.) is sometimes sold under the name of game. The meat of large game, especially those of the Cervidae family – red deer, roe deer – is called venison . To go a little further: Hunting is a regulated activity (permit, periods, types and number of animals and so on). Poaching (illegal hunting) is a crime punishable by imprisonment in France. As game can cause major damage to crops, a compensation system to which hunters contribute has been created in certain countries, including France.