Hunting license

A hunting license or hunting permit is a regulatory or legal mechanism to control hunting, both commercial and recreational. A license specifically made for recreational (game) hunting is sometimes called a game license or game permit. Hunting activities beyond the permission of such licensing are typically regarded as poaching and thus wrongful or criminal.

Hunting may be regulated formally via game laws issued by a legislature or government agency, or informally by unwritten conventions, self-restraintethics or moral code among the hunter community. The purposes for requiring hunting licenses include natural resource management, conservation of vulnerable/endangered species and raising tax revenue (often, but not always, to dedicated funds). Some laws require a specific waiting period between application and receiving a license.