Where and when you may hunt in Puerto Rico

They are the rules of conduct Act 241-1999 imposes on someone who already holds a hunting licence: where they may hunt, in which season, with what weapon, how much they may take in a day and what duties they carry while in the field. They are spread across Article 6, which lists the illegal acts, and Articles 18 and 19, which list the duly authorised hunter’s rights and obligations.

These rules reach any person who hunts or collects wildlife in Puerto Rico. Article 5 says it without exceptions: no person shall hunt or collect species of wildlife found in Puerto Rico without obtaining a licence or permit for those purposes from the Secretary. Article 2(v) defines a person as any natural or legal person, including the Government of Puerto Rico, its agencies and instrumentalities.

• Holding a licence or permit from the Secretary before hunting or collecting any wildlife species in Puerto Rico (Article 5).Verified against the official source
• Hunting only within the seasons the Secretary establishes, and only species designated by regulation as game animals (Articles 6(b) and 6(f)).Verified against the official source
• Not sport hunting in state forests, nor on public-domain lands administered by the Department except in wildlife reserves and in natural reserves where the Secretary finds hunting compatible (Article 6(g)).Verified against the official source
• Not hunting on public roads or within a hundred metres of populations and dwellings, unless the dwelling belongs to the hunter or to whoever authorised them to hunt within that perimeter (Article 6(ñ)).Verified against the official source
• Carrying at all times when transporting hunting weapons or hunting the licence or permit and the weapon’s registration certificate, and showing them to another hunter, a law-enforcement officer or an identified DRNA official (Article 19(b)).Verified against the official source
• Not exceeding the daily maximum of birds and animals, nor hunting a life stage or sex other than those the Secretary set for each specimen (Article 6(h)).Verified against the official source
• Not hunting or collecting vulnerable or endangered species, nor possessing, transporting or selling articles derived from them (Article 6(o)).Verified against the official source
• Making a reasonable effort to recover and take possession of every game animal killed or wounded, for consumption or for taxidermy with educational or exhibition purposes in the case of trophies (Article 19(i)).Verified against the official source

• The hunting licence or the corresponding permit, which must be carried while hunting or transporting hunting weapons (Article 19(b)).
• The hunting weapon’s registration certificate, required alongside the licence and shown to any of the persons the Act lists (Article 19(b)).
• The written authorisation from the Commissioner of the Police Bureau to transport the hunting weapon out of season for reasons unrelated to hunting, unless holding a valid weapons licence with the weapon in the Electronic Register of the 2020 Weapons Act (Article 6(k)).
• The Secretary’s written permit to carry or transport a hunting weapon on public-domain lands where hunting has been prohibited (Article 6(l)).

1. 1

   Step 1: A hundred metres from dwellings, and nothing on the road

   It is the distance rule most often misquoted, so it goes first and in its own words. Article 6(ñ) makes it illegal to sport hunt any species of wild fauna on any public road or at a distance of less than a hundred metres from populations and dwellings, unless the dwelling belongs to the hunter or to a person who authorised them to hunt within the hundred-metre perimeter. And Article 2(c) defines a public road broadly: any public way, state or municipal, whether a street, a neighbourhood road or a highway.

2. 2

   Step 2: State forests are closed to hunting

   Article 6(g) separates two things. First, it is illegal to sport hunt in state forests, with no qualification. Second, it is illegal to hunt on public-domain lands administered by the Department, except in wildlife reserves and in those natural reserves where the Secretary finds hunting a compatible activity; the same subsection says the Secretary shall set by regulation the criteria for determining those compatible uses. The definitions help read it: Article 2(w) calls a wildlife reserve the area the Department administers where sport hunting is permitted under current regulation, and Article 2(cc) calls a refuge the area the Secretary designates where sport hunting is not permitted.

3. 3

   Step 3: Hunting is more than it looks

   Article 2(h) defines hunting as pursuing, wounding, killing, capturing, shooting at, disturbing or destroying any species of Puerto Rico wild fauna. Pursuing and disturbing are on the list, so the regulated conduct begins before the shot. Article 2(i) adds collecting, which is capturing or taking possession of any wildlife species, and Article 5 requires a licence or permit for both hunting and collecting.

4. 4

   Step 4: Out of season you may not even transport the weapon

   Article 6(f) makes it illegal to sport hunt species designated as game animals outside the established seasons, and clarifies that hunting for scientific, animal-control or educational purposes by duly authorised persons is not illegal. Article 6(k) goes further: it is illegal to carry or transport any sport hunting weapon outside the seasons, whether on the hunter’s person, in the vehicle or in any other means of transport, including an animal. If it must be transported for purposes unrelated to sport hunting, written authorisation from the Commissioner of the Police Bureau is needed, or a valid weapons licence with the weapon registered in the Electronic Register of the 2020 Weapons Act of Puerto Rico.

5. 5

   Step 5: How much and of what: the daily maximum and the life stage

   Article 6(h) makes it illegal to sport hunt a quantity of birds and animals in excess of the maximum set for each hunting day, or of a life stage or sex other than those the Secretary set for each specimen of game bird or animal. Article 6(b) closes it from above: it is illegal to sport hunt any species not designated by regulation as a game animal. The numbers and the lists live in DRNA’s regulation, which we did not read and therefore do not reproduce.

6. 6

   Step 6: What counts as a hunting weapon under the Act

   Article 2(b) defines it in four clauses. Any shotgun of no less than .410 and no more than 12 gauge, with a barrel twenty or more inches long, incapable of being loaded with more than three cartridges at a time. The same shotgun fitted with a removable plug, only if removing it requires disassembling the weapon so that it cannot be loaded with more than three cartridges. Any instrument, equipment or weapon whose design, calibre or ballistic properties are most appropriate for hunting exotic species and wild fauna for management, control and scientific research purposes. And the bow and arrow, per the regulation the Secretary establishes. Article 6(v) makes it illegal to hunt with a weapon other than those authorised or to use ammunition prohibited by regulation.

7. 7

   Step 7: The licence and the weapon’s registration go on you, not at home

   Article 19(b) is the most concrete duty on the whole list: possess and carry with you, at all times when transporting hunting weapons or engaged in hunting, the hunting licence or any of the authorised licences or permits, as well as the hunting weapon’s registration certificate, and show them on request to another hunter, to a law-enforcement officer or to a duly identified DRNA official. That another hunter may ask for them surprises many people, but it is in the text.

8. 8

   Step 8: Neither lend the licence nor lend the weapon

   Article 19(c) forbids transferring or lending the sport hunting licence to another person. Article 19(d) forbids lending hunting weapons, with two express exceptions: in game preserves you may use the weapon provided by the owner, administrator or person in charge; and where the other party is a sport hunter with an active licence, in which case that hunter must accompany them at all times while carrying or transporting the weapon or hunting. Accompanying at all times is the condition, not a detail.

9. 9

   Step 9: What you kill you must recover

   Article 19(i) imposes a duty that is not paperwork: no hunter may kill or wound a game animal without then making a reasonable effort to recover it and take possession of it for consumption, or for taxidermy with educational or exhibition purposes in the case of animals that may be considered trophies. Article 19(h) adds the administrative part: supply the information the Department requires to monitor sport hunting activity.

10. 10

    Step 10: Who can stop you in the field

    Article 21 places enforcement of this Act and its regulations with law-enforcement officers, and Article 2(bb) defines that term more broadly than many expect: every member of the Cuerpo de Vigilantes, agents of the Police of Puerto Rico, the Municipal Guard, agents of the federal Forest Service and of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service.

11. 11

    Step 11: What you may do

    Article 18 lists the duly authorised hunter’s rights, and there are four: to hunt during the seasons the Secretary designates; to hunt in the areas the Secretary authorises and designates; to transport hunting weapons in the manner and within the limits this Act and the Weapons Act of Puerto Rico establish; and any other rights the Secretary establishes. The first three point back to the Secretary’s decisions, so the current regulation is what says, each season, where and what.

These rules are not filed for: they are complied with in the field. Enforcement is with the law-enforcement officers of Article 21, among them the Cuerpo de Vigilantes of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. The written permits the Act itself mentions are requested from the DRNA Secretary, except the authorisation to transport the weapon out of season for reasons unrelated to hunting, which Article 6(k) places with the Commissioner of the Police Bureau.

• Believing the licence is enough: the Act also sets where, when, with what and how much.
• Hunting near someone else’s house: the limit is a hundred metres from populations and dwellings, absent permission from whoever lives there.
• Shooting from a neighbourhood road thinking it is not a highway: the definition of a public road covers streets, neighbourhood roads and highways.
• Entering a state forest to hunt: Article 6(g) forbids it without exception.
• Assuming every reserve allows hunting: only wildlife reserves and natural reserves where the Secretary finds it compatible.
• Carrying the shotgun in the boot out of season: written Police authorisation or a valid weapons licence with the weapon registered is needed.
• Leaving the licence or the weapon’s registration at home: they must be carried and shown, even to another hunter who asks.
• Lending the licence to a relative: Article 19(c) expressly forbids it.
• Lending the weapon to another licensed hunter and staying behind: the exception requires accompanying them at all times.
• Thinking only the shot counts: hunting includes pursuing and disturbing wild fauna.
• Leaving a wounded animal and moving on: a reasonable effort to recover it is required.
• Hunting a species because it is common: if it is not designated by regulation as a game animal, it is illegal.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov