Coyote Hunting Alaska, Laws, Regulations, Season, & License Info

Coyote classification & license in Alaska

What is the classification of coyotes in Alaska?

Both a fur animal and a furbearer, and the two words are not synonyms in Alaska — they are license classifications:

fur animal – beaver, coyote, Arctic fox, red fox, lynx or squirrel that has not been domestically raised; fur animal is a classification of animals subject to taking with a hunting license¹

furbearer – beaver, coyote, Arctic fox, red fox, fisher, lynx, marten, mink, weasel, muskrat, river otter, squirrel, marmot …, wolf, or wolverine; furbearer is a classification of animals subject to taking with a trapping license¹

Coyote appears in both lists, and ADF&G spells out what that means:

Furbearers that are also classified as fur animals or big game animals may be taken either with a trapping license under trapping regulations or with a hunting license under hunting regulations.²

So you choose your rulebook when you choose your license. The trapping license is much the more permissive of the two on methods — and, critically, it is not a license to trap only. ADF&G is explicit that furbearers “can also be shot with firearms unless specifically prohibited.”² You may carry a trapping license, never set a trap, shoot coyotes with a rifle, and take advantage of the trapping rulebook’s methods.

That single fact is the most useful thing on this page. See night hunting.

Are coyotes protected in Alaska?

Not protected, but genuinely regulated — unlike the predatory-animal states further south, Alaska gives coyotes seasons and bag limits in some units, requires a license everywhere, and requires you to salvage the hide.³

Is a hunting license required to hunt coyotes in Alaska?

A license is required — either one. The choice matters more than the cost:

Resident fees are the reason this is an easy decision: a resident trapping license is $25, and a combined trapping and hunting license is $65.⁴ A resident who wants to run thermal on coyotes should simply buy the trapping license.

Non-residents pay considerably more. A non-resident who wants to trap “need[s] a hunting and trapping license,” and the combined non-resident hunting and trapping license is $405.⁵

One trap in the hunting-license route, and it catches visitors specifically: fur animals may not be taken “with a nonresident small game license.”⁶ The cheap small game license does not cover coyotes.

The prices above are resident prices. A non-resident pays more, and a non-resident small game license will not do it at all — that one is expressly excluded. See what a non-resident needs.

Is hunter education required in Alaska?

Not generally for coyotes. Alaska’s hunter education requirements attach to specific areas and hunts rather than to the species, and there is no statewide certificate requirement to buy a hunting or trapping license. Check ADF&G for the area you are hunting, because some units and some federal lands impose their own requirements.

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in Alaska?

Yes, with a non-resident hunting license, or a non-resident hunting and trapping license at $405 if you want the trapping rulebook.⁵ Not on a non-resident small game license — that one is expressly excluded.⁶

Note the validity periods differ: a resident trapping license runs from issue until 30 September of the following year, while a non-resident trapping license expires on 31 December of the year you bought it.⁷

See also is a hunting license required — the license rules there, and the exemptions and add-ons that go with them, apply to you too.

Season, units & bag limits in Alaska

What is the season for coyote hunting in Alaska?

It depends on your unit, and on which license you are using. Alaska is divided into 26 Game Management Units and the answer changes across them.

Under a hunting license:⁸

Unit 8 is absent from both rows, which means there is no open season for coyotes there under the hunting regulations — Kodiak and the surrounding islands are outside the coyote’s range.

Under a trapping license the seasons are shorter and set regionally — for example Units 1–5 run 1 November – 30 April, Units 6, 7 and 15 run 10 November – 31 March, Units 12 and 20E run 15 October – 30 April, and Units 26B and 26C run 1 November – 15 April, all with no limit.^{9 10 11} Check your unit before you travel — this page cannot substitute for the season table for the ground you will actually stand on.

The practical shape: in most of the Interior and the west, under a hunting license, coyotes are open all year with no limit. In the southeast panhandle and the southwest they are a seasonal animal with a two-coyote limit.

What is the bag limit for coyotes in Alaska?

Two in Units 1–5, 18 and 22 under a hunting license; no limit everywhere else, and no limit under a trapping license.⁸

What are the legal hunting hours for coyotes in Alaska?

Alaska sets no statewide shooting-hours rule for fur animals. What constrains you after dark is light, not the clock — and in an Alaskan winter that is a serious constraint, because the dark is most of the day. See night hunting.

Can you hunt coyotes during deer or big game season in Alaska?

Yes — but one restriction adopted for 2026–27 bites exactly here. Night vision and forward-looking infrared may not be used to take furbearers in Units 1–5 during any open state or federal deer hunting season, in the same location at the same time.¹² Southeast Alaska deer hunters and coyote hunters share the same ground, and the Board separated them.

Night hunting coyotes in Alaska

Can you hunt coyotes at night in Alaska?

Yes, but only meaningfully under a trapping license. This is the answer that most write-ups get wrong, because they read the hunting regulations, find the artificial-light prohibition, and stop.

Can you use artificial lights for coyote hunting in Alaska?

Under a hunting license, no. The prohibition and its exceptions are narrow, and neither exception is a coyote:

Using artificial light, EXCEPT: Artificial light may be used while tracking and dispatching a wounded game animal; however, a hunter may not be on or in a motorized vehicle while using artificial light; Artificial light may be used by resident hunters taking black bear under customary and traditional use activities at a den site Oct 15–Apr 30 in Unit 19A …¹³

Under a trapping license, yes — with a window and a unit list. The statewide methods rule bars light for furbearers and then carves out:

artificial light may be used for the purpose of taking furbearers Nov 1 – Mar 31 in Units 7 and 9–26 during an open season.¹⁴

So light on coyotes is lawful in most of Alaska, in winter, with a trapping license — and unlawful in Units 1–6 and 8 at any time, and unlawful anywhere in April through October.

Can you use night vision in Alaska?

Trapping license only, and the geography is different from the light rule — wider, not narrower.

Under the hunting regulations, night vision sits in a flat prohibition with no fur-animal exception: it is unlawful to take game using “a pit, fire, laser sight (excluding rangefinders), electronically-enhanced night vision, any forward looking infrared device,” and the listed exceptions concern rangefinders and scent lures, not coyotes.¹⁵

Under the trapping regulations the carve-out is broad — night vision “may be used for taking furbearers” — with no season window and no unit list attached to it, unlike the artificial-light exception.¹⁶ Two exclusions were added for 2026–27:

• not in Unit 8 at all; and
• not in Units 1–5 during any open state or federal deer season, in the same place at the same time.¹²

Can you use thermal in Alaska?

Same answer as night vision, and the same license. A forward-looking infrared device is named alongside night vision in both the prohibition and the furbearer exception, so thermal follows night vision exactly.^{15 16}

The practical upshot for anyone planning a trip: if you intend to run thermal on Alaskan coyotes, buy the trapping license. For a resident that is $25, or $65 bundled with a hunting license.⁴ For a non-resident it is $405 for the combined license.⁵ Carrying only a hunting license and a thermal scope is the single most likely way to turn a legal coyote hunt in Alaska into a citation.

Are there specific weapons restrictions for hunting coyotes at night in Alaska?

No separate night weapons list. What changes at night is the light, optics and vehicle rules above. Note that the artificial-light exception for tracking a wounded animal expressly forbids being on or in a motorized vehicle while using the light.¹³

Firearms, ammunition & suppressors in Alaska

Are suppressors allowed for coyote hunting in Alaska?

Yes, for any game, once the suppressor is federally registered. Neither the hunting nor the trapping regulations restrict suppressors — the firearm prohibitions name machine guns, set guns and shotguns larger than 10 gauge, and nothing else.^{17 18}

The registration is not optional in Alaska. State law lists a “device designed, made, or adapted to muffle the report of a firearm” as a prohibited weapon, and possessing one is misconduct involving weapons. The defense is federal paperwork: it is “an affirmative defense … that the … possession … of the prohibited weapon was in accordance with registration under 26 U.S.C. 5801-5872 (National Firearms Act).”¹⁹

That means an approved ATF Form 4 or Form 1 before the can goes on the rifle. Since January 1, 2026 the federal tax on a suppressor is $0, but the approval and the wait are unchanged.²⁰

What firearms are allowed or restricted for coyote hunting in Alaska?

Very little is restricted. You may not take game “using a machine gun, set gun, or shotgun larger than 10 gauge.”¹⁷ The trapping regulations carry the same prohibition for furbearers.¹⁸

No caliber floor or ceiling applies to coyotes. Alaskan conditions argue for a rifle that works cold and a cartridge that reaches: .223, .22-250 and .243 all do the job. See the best coyote gun.

Are there any ammunition restrictions in Alaska?

One, and it is local: in Unit 18, lead shot size T (.20 inch) or smaller is prohibited. Taking game there with a shotgun, or with loose shot in a muzzleloader, is only allowed using non-toxic shot size T or smaller, and you may not be in immediate possession of lead shot.²¹

Nothing else restricts ammunition for coyotes. Federal refuge units set their own rules.

Can you hunt coyotes in Alaska using a .22 LR or other rimfire cartridge?

Yes, no caliber restriction applies. On an Alaskan coyote in winter coat, a rimfire is a close-range proposition at best.

Is there a magazine capacity limit for hunting coyotes in Alaska?

No. Alaska sets no magazine capacity limit and no permit or registration to buy a semi-automatic rifle. A standard AR-15 with a 30-round magazine is lawful — though a semi-auto that runs reliably at −30°F is a different question from a legal one.

Calls, decoys, bait & dogs in Alaska

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in Alaska?

Yes. The rule is stated as an exception to the prohibition on explosives, smoke and chemicals: “Electronic calls may be used for all game animals except moose.”²² Coyotes are not moose.

Are decoys allowed for coyote hunting in Alaska?

Yes. Nothing in either rulebook restricts decoys for fur animals or furbearers.

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in Alaska?

Yes, and Alaska’s definition of bait does the work. Bait is “any material, excluding scent lures, placed to attract an animal by its sense of smell or taste,” and it expressly “does not include those parts of legally taken animals that are not required to be salvaged as edible meat (if not moved from the kill site).”²³

So a gut pile left where the animal fell is not bait. The hunting regulations also allow you to hunt wolves, fox and wolverine with game parts that are not required to be salvaged, and the same principle applies to coyotes.²⁴

Two hard limits: you may not use urine from any species of the deer family, including scent lures containing it,²⁵ and under a trapping license an artificial salt lick is prohibited.¹⁴ A separate ADF&G permit exists for trapping furbearers with game furnished by the state, and it requires posting the permit number at the trap site.²⁶

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in Alaska?

Almost never, and this is a rule people import wrongly from the Lower 48. Under the hunting regulations, fur animals may not be taken “with a dog,” with a single named exception:

with a dog (except coyote in Unit 20D after registering with ADF&G), trap, snare, net, or fish trap⁶

Unit 20D is the Delta Junction area, and the registration is with the ADF&G office there.⁸ Under a trapping license, dogs may be used only “to retrieve dead furbearers.”¹⁴

Private property, vehicles & public land access in Alaska

Is it legal to shoot coyotes on private property (e.g. in your backyard) in Alaska?

On rural private land with permission, yes. In and around towns, municipal firearm discharge ordinances govern, and Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau all restrict discharge.

Alaska’s distinctive access problem is not private land — it is the patchwork of federal, state, Native corporation and borough ownership. Native corporation land is private land and requires permission; some federal refuges, parks and monuments require their own trapping permit on top of the state license.⁵

Can you hunt coyotes from a motorized vehicle in Alaska?

No, and Alaska’s version of this rule is stricter than most. You may not take game from “a motor-driven boat or motorized land vehicle, unless the motor has been shut off and the progress from the motor’s power has ceased.”²⁷ Not merely stopped — the motor off and the drift ended.

Same day airborne is the rule that catches visitors, because so much Alaskan access is by float plane:

It is against the law to hunt or help someone else take big game until 3:00 a.m. the day following the day you have flown. This does not apply if you have flown on a regularly scheduled commercial or commuter airplane.²⁸

For fur animals the rule is expressed as a distance: coyotes may not be taken “the same day you have been airborne, unless you are at least 300 feet from the airplane.”⁶ Under a trapping license there is an extra route — you may shoot a coyote the same day you have flown if the animal “is either caught in a trap or snare or you are more than 300 feet from the airplane.”⁹

Under a trapping license you also may not shoot from, on, or across a highway, nor use an aircraft, snowmachine, boat or other motorized vehicle “for the purpose of driving, herding, or molesting furbearers.”¹⁴

Can you hunt coyotes on public land in Alaska?

Yes, on an enormous amount of it — state land, Bureau of Land Management land, national forest and much national wildlife refuge land. Two cautions.

National Park Service land is mostly closed to hunting, with subsistence exceptions in the preserves. Federal refuges, parks and monuments may require their own permit in addition to the state license, as may Native corporation, private and military land.⁵

Portions of Units 20 and 24–26 fall inside the Dalton Highway Corridor Management Area, where additional restrictions apply.²⁹

Is it legal to trap or snare coyotes in Alaska?

Yes, with a trapping license — and only with a trapping license. Under the hunting regulations, using a trap or snare to take fur animals is prohibited outright.³⁰

The trapping rules that matter for coyotes:¹⁴

• no conventional steel trap with an inside jaw spread over 9 inches; a killer-style body-grip trap with a jaw spread under 13 inches may be used;
• no poison, and no incapacitating substance without written Board permission;
• no disturbing or destroying any furbearer den;
• no hook, net or fish trap; no felt-soled footwear in freshwater streams;
• in Units 12 and 20E it is unlawful to trap coyote during April or October with a steel trap, or with a snare smaller than 3/32 inch in diameter.¹¹

If a caribou, deer or moose dies in your trap or snare, it becomes state property, you must salvage the edible meat and surrender it, you may use no part of it, and you must move every active trap at least 300 feet from the site for the rest of the regulatory year.³¹

Is it legal to poison coyotes in Alaska?

No. Poison is prohibited under both rulebooks — for furbearers explicitly,¹⁴ and under the hunting regulations as part of the general prohibition on poison and incapacitating substances.²⁷

Are there protected areas or additional local restrictions in Alaska?

Yes. National Parks, most of which are closed to general hunting. Unit 14C (the Anchorage area) carries special area restrictions for coyote that ADF&G publishes separately.⁸ The Dalton Highway Corridor Management Area.²⁹ Unit 18’s non-toxic shot requirement.²¹ And in Unit 7, trapping within 50 yards of specified roads and pullouts around Cooper Landing is restricted to elevated, enclosed or underwater sets.¹²

Can you use two-way radios while coyote hunting in Alaska?

This is the one state where the answer will surprise you, and it is a real restriction on coyotes. Alaska’s methods and means list prohibits:

“Using wireless communication to take a specific animal by a person until after 3:00 a.m. following the day after the use of the device, EXCEPT: Communications equipment may be used for safety but may not be used to aid in taking of game”.³²

“Wireless communication” is defined broadly — “electronic communication of any form that is transmitted through the air without requiring any cable or wires between two or more devices”³³ — so a handheld radio, a cell phone and a text message are all the same thing here.

Read the timing, because it is not a same-day rule. If somebody radios you that a coyote is on the flat, that animal is off limits to you until 3:00 a.m. the day after tomorrow. The clock is written to make the information useless, not merely delayed.

It reaches you under either license. Coyote is both a fur animal and a furbearer in Alaska — see the classification — and the trapping regulations carry the same prohibition, so switching licenses does not switch the rule off.³⁴

Safety talk is fine. The exception is explicit, and it is the one hunters actually need: you may use the radio for safety, you may not use it to aid in taking game.

After the shot: pelts, sealing & salvage in Alaska

Are there regulations for possessing or transporting dead coyotes or pelts out of Alaska?

You must salvage the hide. This is the obligation most often missed, and it is not optional:

You must salvage the hide of a wolf, wolverine, coyote, fox, or lynx.³

Coyotes do not require sealing — that requirement attaches to lynx, wolf, wolverine, fisher and mountain lion, not to coyote.³ And the old blue raw fur export permit is no longer required for shipping a raw coyote skin out of Alaska.

Shipping fur out of the country is a different matter and needs federal paperwork. Lynx, river otter and wolf skins need a CITES permit and a federal import/export license; coyote does not, but if you are shipping a mixed lot, the whole shipment is inspected.³⁵

Can you sell coyote pelts in Alaska, and do you need a fur handler’s license?

You can sell your own without any additional license. ADF&G is direct about it:

You do not need a fur dealer license to sell the raw fur you legally trapped nor do you need a trapping or fur dealer license to buy raw fur for your own use. However, if you want to buy or barter animal skins for the purpose of reselling them, you will need a fur dealer license.³⁶

The fur dealer license is biennial: $150 resident, $500 non-resident.^{4 5} Note also that “a person may not resell raw fur without a fur dealer’s license.”¹

Is there a coyote bounty program in Alaska?

No. Alaska paid coyote bounties historically and removed them in 1969, as the department moved from extermination toward control.³⁷ Nothing has replaced them.

Alaska does run predator control programs under its intensive management law, but these are targeted at wolves and bears to boost moose and caribou, are adopted area by area by the Board of Game, and are carried out by department staff or specifically permitted members of the public.³⁸ They are not a bounty and not something a visiting coyote hunter takes part in.

Are coyote contests legal in Alaska, or can I hunt in Alaska for an out-of-state contest?

Alaska has not banned predator hunting contests — no provision in the hunting or trapping regulations prohibits a competitive event for fur animals or furbearers. Contests are far less established here than in the Lower 48, largely because coyote densities are low and access is hard.

Bear in mind the bag limits and closed seasons in Units 1–5, 18 and 22 apply to you regardless of any contest’s rules, and the salvage requirement applies to every animal.³

Coyotes in Alaska

Are there coyotes in Alaska? How many, and where?

Yes — and they are recent arrivals. ADF&G records coyotes as “first noted in the state shortly after the turn of the 20th century,” appearing in Southeast and then spreading north through the Tanana Valley. Numbers peaked around 1940 and then declined.³⁷

Today they occupy Southeast and much of Interior Alaska, with sparse records north of the Yukon River. The highest concentrations are on the Kenai Peninsula, in the Matanuska-Susitna valleys and in the Copper River Valley — which is also where most of the road-accessible hunting is.³⁷

ADF&G describes the population as “fairly stable across their current range,” while acknowledging it does not regularly document harvest or run formal population surveys.³⁷ There is no statewide estimate.

Are Alaska coyotes dangerous to people or pets?

To people, very rarely. To pets in the Mat-Su and on the Kenai they are a real risk, and Alaskan coyotes share ground with wolves, lynx and bears — a loose dog has more than one problem.

When is coyote mating season in Alaska, and when do pups arrive?

Breeding runs through late winter, with pups from late spring — a little later than the Lower 48. Late winter is the best calling of the year, and in Alaska it also lines up with the trapping seasons and with the artificial-light window that closes on 31 March.¹⁴

When are coyotes most active in Alaska?

First and last light — which in an Alaskan winter is a generous definition covering much of the day. For the full breakdown of season, weather and moon phase, see when to hunt coyotes.

What’s changing in Alaska

• 2026–27 — night vision and forward-looking infrared were restricted for the first time since the furbearer exception was created. The Board of Game prohibited both for taking furbearers in Unit 8 outright, and in Units 1–5 during any open state or federal deer hunting season in the same location at the same time.¹²
• 2026–27 — trapping was restricted around Cooper Landing. Within 50 yards of specified roads and pullouts in Unit 7, sets must be elevated three feet above hard ground, enclosed, underwater or under ice.¹²
• 2026–27 — a mountain lion trapping season was established in Units 1 and 3–5, and mountain lion now appears in the furbearer and fur animal lists — a genuinely new species for Alaska.^{12 2}
• 1969 — the coyote bounty was removed, ending roughly half a century of bounty payments.³⁷

These answers get re-checked before they go stale. The verification date at the top of the page is the record of when that last happened, not decoration.

Anything else worth noting about coyote hunting in Alaska

Alaska rewards planning more than any state on this site, and the planning is not mostly about regulations — it is about access, weather and the fact that coyote densities here are a fraction of what they are on the Great Plains.

But the regulatory decision is simple and it is made before you leave home:

Buy the trapping license. It is $25 for a resident, $65 bundled with a hunting license, and it is the only route to night vision and thermal on an Alaskan coyote. You never have to set a trap to benefit from it.

Check your unit twice — once for the season and limit, once for the light and optics restrictions, which do not share the same unit lists. Light is Units 7 and 9–26, November to March. Night vision and thermal are everywhere except Unit 8, and except Units 1–5 in deer season.

Salvage the hide. Every coyote, every time.

Do not fly and shoot the same day unless you are 300 feet from the aircraft, or the animal is in a trap.

Is it legal to own a coyote as a pet in Alaska?

No. Alaska prohibits possessing native wild mammals as pets and does not issue permits to keep a coyote. Contact ADF&G before assuming any exception applies.

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