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

Coyote classification & license in Florida

What is the classification of coyotes in Florida?

A furbearer. The handbook lists them:

Furbearers—bobcat, otter, raccoon, opossum, coyote, beaver and skunk¹

The Wildlife Code says the same thing in its definitions, and adds the two definitions that do the real work:

Furbearers – Raccoon, opossum, skunk, beaver, coyote, fox, bobcat, otter, mink, weasel, and round-tailed muskrat.²

Game – Game mammals and game birds.³

Game mammals – Those species of deer, squirrel, bear, and rabbit with open seasons established by Rule 68A-12.012 or 68A-13.004, F.A.C., and non-native mammal species generally considered game, including but not limited to elk, antelope, and buffalo.⁴

Read those three together and most of this page is already written. Florida’s methods rule, 68A-12.002, is titled General Methods of Taking Game and Crows and every prohibition in it is scoped to game or to crows. A coyote is a furbearer. The rule does not reach it.

The furbearer label is not purely liberating, though. It is what pulls the coyote into chapter 68A-24, which is where the license requirement, the trapping regime and — importantly — a daylight default come from.

Are coyotes protected in Florida?

No, in the sense that matters: no closed season and no bag or possession limit.⁵

Coyotes are still wildlife, so the general prohibition in 68A-4.001(1) applies — nothing may be taken except as the rules permit — and chapter 68A-24 is the rule that permits it.⁶

Is a hunting license required to hunt coyotes in Florida?

Yes. The handbook is explicit about which license and when:

Hunting license — Required when taking or attempting to take game or furbearing animals (by methods other than trapping).⁷

A separate furbearer license at $26.50 is required for two things — trapping, and selling:

Furbearer license — Required when taking or attempting to take furbearers (raccoons, beavers, bobcats, otters, opossums, coyotes, skunks, nutrias) using traps or snares and when selling the hides, pelts and meat of furbearers, whether taken by trap, snare or gun.⁷

Read that second clause carefully. Shoot a coyote and you need only a hunting license. Sell its hide and you need the furbearer license too, even though no trap was involved.

The resident annual hunting license is $17.00.⁸

There is a homestead exemption, and it is narrow: it covers persons hunting in their county of residence on their own homestead, their spouse’s or minor child’s homestead, or — for a minor — their parents’ homestead. Florida residents 65 and older are also exempt.⁹

The prices above are resident prices. A non-resident pays more, and Florida sells no short-term license — budget for the annual. See what a non-resident needs.

Is hunter education required in Florida?

Yes, on a fixed birth-date threshold:

Everyone born on or after June 1, 1975, must pass an approved hunter safety course before [purchasing a hunting license that] enables them to hunt without adult supervision.¹⁰

Note that this is a fixed date rather than a rolling age, so it does not drift from year to year.

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in Florida?

Yes. The non-resident annual hunting license is $151.50.⁸

That is the only non-resident hunting license in the 2026–27 fee table — there is no short-term or 10-day option listed. Budget for the annual.

Everything on this page applies to non-residents on the same terms, including the night rule — which is about whose land you are on, not where you live. A non-resident with the landowner’s designation may hunt coyotes at night on that private land; a Florida resident without it may not.

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, hours & bag limits in Florida

What is the season for coyote hunting in Florida?

Year-round, statewide:

Gray squirrels, rabbits, wild hogs, raccoons, opossums, skunks, beavers and coyotes may be taken year round by rifle, shotgun, handgun, muzzleloader, air gun, crossbow or bow.⁵

The furbearer chapter says the same:

Raccoon, coyote, opossum, skunk, and beaver may be taken throughout the year…¹¹

Note the standing caveat on every season table in the handbook: “Seasons, dates and bag limits do not apply to wildlife management areas.”¹² See public land.

What is the bag limit for coyotes in Florida?

None. The same season entry sets limits for squirrels and rabbits and then says: “No limits on other species” for both daily bag and possession.⁵

What are the legal hunting hours for coyotes in Florida?

This is the question where the handbook and the rule do not say the same thing, and the rule is the one that governs.

The handbook’s furbearer page says:

Shooting hours for bobcats, otters, skunks and beavers is one half-hour before sunrise until one half-hour after sunset. Raccoons, opossums and coyotes may be taken by gun during daytime and nighttime hours.¹²

The rule behind it is narrower. 68A-24.002(2)(a) permits coyote to be taken by guns “during daylight hours only,” and then points at two exceptions — paragraph (2)(b), which is about raccoons and opossums, and Rule 68A-4.002:

Raccoon, coyote, opossum, skunk, and beaver may be taken throughout the year by the use of guns (during daylight hours only, except as provided in paragraph (2)(b) below and Rule 68A-4.002, F.A.C.), dogs, live traps or snares…¹¹

So the daylight rule is the default and 68A-4.002 is the whole of the exception for coyotes. What that exception actually says is in night hunting, and it is narrower than the handbook sentence suggests.

“Daylight hours” is a defined term in Florida: one-half hour before sunrise until one-half hour after sunset.¹³

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

Yes — the coyote season is continuous and runs through every other season.

Two things that do not apply, both because of the classification:

Hunter orange is a deer rule. Florida requires 500 square inches of daylight fluorescent orange only of a person hunting deer, or accompanying someone hunting deer, on public lands — and not during archery-only seasons or on private land at any time.¹⁴ It is not a general firearms-season requirement, and it does not attach to coyote hunting.

Wear it anyway during general gun season. The rule is about who is legally required to; the woods do not care.

The magazine and weapon restrictions are game rules. See firearms.

Night hunting in Florida

Can you hunt coyotes at night in Florida?

Yes on private land, and only under the terms of one short rule. This is the most important sentence on the page:

(2) On privately owned lands, the landowner or designee may take wild hog, coyote, armadillo, black and brown rats, house mouse, and nutria with a gun and light during non-daylight hours.¹⁵

Three conditions are built into that sentence, and all three bind:

• Privately owned lands. Not public land, not a WMA, not a water management district tract.
• The land owner or designee. You are hunting on someone’s authority, not on a license. Get the permission in writing and carry it.
• With a gun and light. The permission is written as a gun-and-light permission.

Everything else is prohibited by subsection (1) of the same rule unless a Commission rule or permit says otherwise:

Except when Commission rule or permit specifically authorizes take of wildlife or freshwater fish with a gun during non-daylight hours and except to the extent allowed by subsection (2), below, the take of wildlife or freshwater fish with a gun between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise is prohibited.¹⁵

There is a second route to a coyote at night, and it is worse. Acting as a landowner dealing with nuisance wildlife under 68A-9.010, you may take coyotes on your property — but that rule lists the methods you may not use, and the first one is:

(2) Methods that may not be used to take nuisance wildlife: (a) Gun and light.¹⁶

So the same act is lawful under the hunting rule and unlawful under the nuisance rule. If you are shooting coyotes at night with a light, you are hunting under 68A-4.002(2) — which means you need the landowner relationship, and the nuisance-wildlife framing does not help you.

Can you use artificial lights for coyote hunting in Florida?

Yes, and the reason is the scoping. Florida’s artificial-light prohibition reads:

No person shall: … Take or attempt to take any game with the aid of live decoys, recorded game calls or sounds, set guns, artificial light, net, trap, drug, or poison.¹⁷

That sits in 68A-12.002, General Methods of Taking Game and Crows. A coyote is not game, so the artificial-light ban does not reach it — which is why 68A-4.002(2) can grant a gun-and-light permission without contradicting anything.

Note also which species Florida does restrict at night. The furbearer rule caps raccoon and opossum hunters at .22 rimfire or a single-shot .410, and bars them from using a light from a moving vehicle — and it names only those two:

During nighttime hours, raccoon or opossum may be taken with a gun only by the aid of a light and dogs, with .22 rimfire firearms other than .22 magnum, or with a single-shot, .410-gauge centerfire or muzzleloading shotgun using shot no larger than No. 6. The hunting of raccoon or opossum under the provisions of this paragraph by display or use of a light from a moving vehicle, boat, or animal is prohibited.¹⁸

Coyote is not in that sentence. The caliber ceiling and the light-from-a-vehicle prohibition are raccoon rules.

Now the warning that matters more than any of the above. Florida Statutes §379.404(2) makes a light plus a deer-capable firearm, at night, in deer country, evidence of a deer offence:

The display or use of a light in a place where deer might be found and in a manner capable of disclosing the presence of deer, together with the possession of firearms or other weapons customarily used for the taking of deer, between 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise, shall be prima facie evidence of an intent to violate the provisions of subsection (1).¹⁹

The statute excepts landowners and their employees patrolling or inspecting the property, provided an employee carries proof of employment. That exception is closely related to the class of people 68A-4.002(2) authorizes, which is not a coincidence — but it is not identical wording, and “designee” is not “employee.”

The practical consequence: carry your written permission, and do not scan with a white light from a public road.

Can you use night vision in Florida?

On private land, by the landowner or a designee, yes — but since 1 July 2026 Florida names the optic. The night rule gained a subsection: outside the Wildlife Management Area system, “the use of a gun equipped with a thermal, night-vision, or similar device is prohibited for taking wildlife or freshwater fish during non-daylight hours, except when Commission rule or permit specifically authorizes the take of wildlife or freshwater fish with a gun during non-daylight hours.”¹⁵

Subsection (2) of the same rule is that authorization for coyotes: on privately owned land, “the landowner or designee may take wild hog, coyote, armadillo, black and brown rats, house mouse, and nutria with a gun and light during non-daylight hours.”¹⁵ Read together, a night vision or thermal scope on a coyote rifle is lawful there and nowhere else. FWC has not published guidance on how the two subsections interact, so treat that as the reading of the text it is.

The other rules were checked too, and add nothing:

• 68A-24.002, the furbearer methods rule, whose only optical or caliber conditions are the raccoon and opossum ones.¹⁸
• 68A-12.002, the prohibited-methods rule, which restricts artificial light for game and mentions no optics at all.¹⁷
• 68A-4.001, the general prohibitions, which cover gassing dens, feeding, and remote-controlled guns — and no optics.⁶
• The 2026–27 handbook, whose furbearer and prohibited-methods pages carry no optics restriction.¹²²⁰

This moved once already. Until July 2026 no Florida rule named an optic at all. It can move again at a single Commission meeting. Sign up below and you will hear if it changes.

Can you use thermal in Florida?

At night, only on private land by the landowner or a designee, the same as night vision above: since 1 July 2026 a thermal-equipped gun is prohibited at night outside the WMA system unless a rule authorizes the night take, and 68A-4.002(2) is that rule for coyotes on private land.¹⁵ In Florida thermal still has one advantage over a light.

The night permission in 68A-4.002(2) is written as a gun-and-light permission, and the evidentiary trap in §379.404(2) is built entirely on the display or use of a light.¹⁹ A thermal imager displays nothing. It emits nothing for that statute to attach to.

That does not put you outside 68A-4.002. You still need to be on private land with the landowner’s authority, because subsection (1) prohibits taking any wildlife with a gun at night unless a rule or permit allows it, and subsection (2) is the rule you are relying on. What thermal removes is the deer-poaching inference, not the land requirement.

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

No. The caliber ceiling that applies at night in Florida — .22 rimfire or a single-shot .410 — is written for raccoon and opossum and does not name coyote.¹⁸

The year-round methods entry governs instead, and it is the same list by day or night: rifle, shotgun, handgun, muzzleloader, air gun, crossbow or bow.⁵

Firearms, ammunition & suppressors in Florida

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

Florida answers this as a positive list rather than a set of prohibitions:

Gray squirrels, rabbits, wild hogs, raccoons, opossums, skunks, beavers and coyotes may be taken year round by rifle, shotgun, handgun, muzzleloader, air gun, crossbow or bow.⁵

The furbearer rule adds dogs, live traps and snares to that list.¹¹

Are suppressors allowed for coyote hunting in Florida?

Yes. Florida’s hunting rules contain no suppressor prohibition. The prohibition that used to sit in 68A-12.002 was removed by Commission amendment in November 2014, and the current text of the rule — read in full for this page — carries no reference to silencers or suppressor-equipped firearms.¹⁷

Federal requirements still apply: an approved ATF Form 4 (or Form 1 to build one) and registration. Since January 1, 2026 the federal tax on a suppressor is $0, but the approval and the wait are unchanged.²¹

Are there any ammunition restrictions in Florida?

None that reach coyotes. Florida’s ammunition rules are deer and bear rules: non-expanding full metal case ammunition is prohibited for taking deer or bear, and rimfire cartridges are prohibited for taking deer or bear.²²

Explosive and drug-administering arrowheads are prohibited, but that prohibition is also written against game.²³

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

Yes. Florida’s rimfire prohibition names deer and bear only.²² Rifle is on the year-round methods list without qualification.⁵

A rimfire is legal here and undergunned. A centerfire is the better tool on anything past close range.

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

No — and this is the single most misreported answer about Florida.

The five-round rule is real, and it is scoped. It appears in 68A-12.002(3), which opens: “Resident game birds, crows or game mammals may be taken with any of the following” — and then, under the rifle and pistol heading:

Use of a centerfire semi-automatic rifle having a magazine capable of holding more than five rounds is prohibited, unless the magazine is plugged with a one-piece filler incapable of removal without disassembling the magazine, so its capacity does not exceed 5 rounds.²²

In the handbook the same list sits under a heading that states its scope outright: “Prohibited methods and equipment for taking game mammals and resident game birds.”²⁰

A coyote is a furbearer, not a game mammal.² The five-round cap does not apply to it, and neither does the fully-automatic prohibition in the same subsection — though a machine gun brings its own federal and state licensing questions entirely separate from wildlife law.

A standard AR-15 with a 30-round magazine is lawful for coyotes in Florida. Take that same rifle after a deer and you must plug the magazine to five.

Calls, decoys, bait & dogs in Florida

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in Florida?

Yes, and Florida grants it affirmatively rather than by omission. The furbearer page lists recorded calls among the lawful methods:

Furbearers may be taken with guns (including air guns), live traps, snares (including power snares) and recorded game calls.¹²

That is the mirror image of the game rule, which bans “recorded game calls or sounds” for game.¹⁷ Same state, same page of the code, opposite answers — decided entirely by which category the animal is in.

Are decoys allowed for coyote hunting in Florida?

Yes, including motion decoys. The live-decoy prohibition is part of the same game-scoped sentence as recorded calls and artificial light,¹⁷ so it does not reach coyotes — but a live decoy is not something to reach for regardless.

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in Florida?

The baiting prohibition is a game rule, but Florida has a separate coyote-specific feeding rule, and that one names you.

The prohibition most people quote applies to game:

Take any game on any land or waters upon which corn, wheat, grain or any other food or substance has been deposited by other than normal agricultural harvesting or planting…²⁴

The one that reaches coyotes is in the general prohibitions, and coyote is named in it:

Intentionally placing food or garbage, allowing the placement of food or garbage, or offering food or garbage in such a manner that it attracts coyotes, foxes or raccoons and in a manner that is likely to create or creates a public nuisance is prohibited.²⁵

Read the whole test. It is not a ban on bait — it is a ban on bait that creates a public nuisance by drawing coyotes in. A carcass on a back forty is a different fact pattern from a feed pile behind a subdivision, and Florida’s rule is written to catch the second.

Two practical limits sit on top of it. Bait a field and you have closed it to deer and turkey, because the game-baiting prohibition attaches to the land, not to the hunter’s intent. And FWC tells the public plainly that feeding coyotes is illegal.²⁶

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in Florida?

Yes, year-round on private land, with two conditions that are specific to coyote.

On private land, rabbit, raccoon, opossum, skunk, nutria, beaver, coyote, wild hog, fox and bobcat may be chased throughout the year with free running dogs.²⁷

Condition one — tracking and correction collars are mandatory, and coyote is named:

Remote tracking and behavior correction devices: All dogs not under physical restraint used for pursuing deer, wild hog, fox, or coyote must be equipped and monitored with devices that allow remote tracking and behavior correction.²⁸

Running coyote dogs on a plain collar is an offence in Florida. The dog needs GPS and correction, and you must be monitoring it.

Condition two — no enclosures. This one is easy to miss and it is a rule about the sport rather than the equipment:

The taking of any fox and/or coyote by a dog or dogs within an enclosure is prohibited. For the purposes of this subsection, in relation to using dogs for the taking of fox or coyote, an “enclosure” is defined as an area of land enclosed in such a manner as to prevent the natural ingress or egress of fox or coyote.²⁹

Dogs must also wear a collar identifying the owner’s name and address, and you need the landowner’s written permission to run them on private land.²⁷

Private property, vehicles & public land access in Florida

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

On rural private land, yes, and the homestead exemption means a resident hunting their own homestead in their county of residence needs no license at all.⁹

Two constraints bite harder in Florida than in most states, because so much of it is developed:

• Roads. Taking or attempting to take wildlife on, upon or from the right-of-way of any federal, state or county-maintained road is prohibited, paved or not — and so is taking wildlife that is standing on one.³⁰ Discharging a firearm over a paved public road or occupied premises is separately prohibited.³¹
• Municipal ordinances. The handbook says outright that it “does not address or advise on local ordinances prohibiting the discharge of firearms or the validity of such ordinances.”²⁰ In suburban Florida that is usually the rule that decides the question.

Can you hunt coyotes from a motorized vehicle in Florida?

The prohibition is scoped to game, and Florida is unusual in leaving the gap open.

No person shall: … Take any game or crows from a moving motorized vehicle, aircraft or boat…, or use such vehicle, aircraft or boat to herd or drive game or crows.³²

A coyote is neither game nor a crow. What still binds:

• The raccoon and opossum light-from-a-vehicle rule does not name coyote either.¹⁸
• Roads and rights-of-way remain closed to taking wildlife of any kind, which removes most of the places a vehicle would be useful.³⁰
• Aircraft, including drones, may not be used to shoot at or harass any bird, fish or other animal — that prohibition is written against animals generally, not game.³³
• Remote-controlled guns are prohibited for all wildlife: no person shall take wildlife “using a method that involves remote control aiming and discharging of a gun when that person is not physically present at the location of that gun.”⁶

Do not read the gap as an invitation. Shooting from a moving vehicle is the fastest way to convert a lawful coyote hunt into a trespass, a road offence, or the §379.404 inference — and safety aside, none of those require the state to have written a coyote-specific rule.

Can you hunt coyotes on public land in Florida?

Yes on many areas, but on completely different terms, and the night permission does not travel with you.

Three things change at the boundary:

The season table stops applying. Every season and bag-limit table in the handbook carries the line “Seasons, dates and bag limits do not apply to wildlife management areas.”¹² The area’s own brochure sets the season.

You need a second permit. A management area permit ($26.50) is required in addition to a hunting license to hunt a WMA, with a short list of excepted areas, and limited-entry or quota permits apply on many areas during specified periods.³⁴

Night hunting is off unless that area’s rules say otherwise. 68A-4.002(2) is a privately owned lands permission. On public land you are back inside subsection (1), which prohibits taking wildlife with a gun at night unless a Commission rule or permit specifically authorizes it.¹⁵

FWC publishes the brochures at MyFWC.com/WMAbrochures and notes that the latest changes are marked in bold in each one.³⁴ Read the brochure for the specific area, because there is no statewide public-land coyote rule to fall back on.

Is it legal to trap or snare coyotes in Florida?

Yes, year-round, with a furbearer license — and the rules change on 31 December 2026. See what’s changing.

Today:

Raccoon, opossum, coyote, beaver and skunk may be trapped statewide year round. No bag limits.¹²

Live traps and snares, including power snares, are lawful methods and must be checked at intervals not exceeding 24 hours.¹¹ The furbearer license is required for any trapping.⁷

Prohibited outright:

The use of steel leg-hold traps, dog-proof raccoon traps and body-grip (conibear) traps is prohibited, except when permitted by FWC.¹²

The Wildlife Code states the steel-trap prohibition without the species qualifier: “No person shall use, place, or maintain any set gun or steel trap for the purpose of taking or attempting to take wildlife.”³⁵

Is it legal to poison coyotes in Florida?

No. Poison is in the prohibited-methods list for game,¹⁷ and the nuisance-wildlife rule bars poison for nuisance take except for pesticides registered by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services used strictly per the label.¹⁶ No such product is registered for killing coyotes by a private individual.

The general prohibition on using gasoline or other chemical or gaseous substances to drive wildlife from their dens also applies to all wildlife.⁶

Are there protected areas or additional local restrictions in Florida?

Yes, five kinds:

• WMAs and public hunting areas, where the brochure sets the season, the methods and the permits — and where the night permission does not reach.³⁴
• National wildlife refuges, eight of which are open to public hunting in Florida under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules rather than FWC’s.³⁴
• State parks, recreation areas and Commission refuges, excluded from every open season unless specifically provided otherwise.³⁶
• Road rights-of-way, closed to taking wildlife statewide.³⁰
• Municipal firearm-discharge ordinances, which the handbook expressly declines to address.²⁰

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

Yes. FWC’s Florida Hunting Regulations 2026–2027 do not restrict two-way radios or cell phones for coyote hunting.

After the shot: pelts, bounties & contests in Florida

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

No tag, no check-in and no CITES requirement for a coyote. Florida’s tagging regime is written for bobcat and otter — those are the pelts needing CITES tags for commercial possession, sale to a Florida buyer or taxidermist, or transport across state lines.¹²

Coyote is not in that regime. There is also no waste rule reaching coyotes: the prohibition on wasting a wounded or killed animal is scoped to game.³⁷

Live animals are the exception, and the restriction is strict. A coyote may be possessed or transported alive only as authorized under the nuisance-wildlife, rehabilitation and captive-wildlife rules.¹¹ Live-captured nuisance wildlife must be released or euthanized within 24 hours, and release is confined to the same contiguous property, or to a site in the county of capture of at least 40 contiguous acres with the owner’s written permission.¹⁶

Relocating a coyote across the county line is unlawful. It is also the single most common thing people ask about doing.

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

Yes, with the furbearer license — and this is the clause that catches gun hunters:

[A furbearer license ($26.50) is required] To sell the hides, pelts and meat of furbearers, whether taken by trap, snare or gun.¹²

Buying pelts is a different license again: a fur dealer and buyer’s license at $100.00 is required to buy or possess green or dried furbearer pelts for commercial purposes.¹²

Note that the general prohibition on buying or selling game does not reach coyote — it is scoped to game, with a carve-out for the skins of deer, squirrels and rabbits in any event.³⁸

Florida coyote fur is close to worthless. Southern pelts are thin, and by the time a Florida coyote is prime the season is over everywhere it would be sold. Sell them if you like, but this is a predator-control state.

Is there a coyote bounty program in Florida?

No state bounty. FWC has not run one, and coyote is managed as a furbearer with no closed season rather than as a bountied pest.

County and livestock-association programs appear locally from time to time. Verify with the county before planning around one.

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

Yes to both. Florida has not restricted predator hunting contests, and that is a searched answer: the general prohibitions in 68A-4.001, the methods rule in 68A-12.002, the furbearer chapter in 68A-24 and the nuisance rule in 68A-9.010 contain no reference to contests, competitions or tournaments.^6171116

Two scheduling notes if you are organizing a round here. The private-land night permission is per-property, so a night round needs every participant tied to a landowner or designee — a general “hunt anywhere” round cannot run legally after dark. And public-land rounds must respect each WMA’s brochure, which will usually be daylight-only.³⁴

What’s changing

31 December 2026 — Florida’s trapping rules are replaced. The Commission approved final amendments in February 2026, and the handbook carries the notice:

NEW Trapping Regulations To Take Effect Dec. 31, 2026 — New regulations require trappers to take specific training, register and report. Review new rules regarding allowed trap types, trap specifications, check times, trap placement and more at MyFWC.com/Trapping.¹²

What FWC has published about the new regime, all of which will matter to anyone trapping coyotes:³⁹

• Registration and training for anyone setting or checking traps, specific to each trap type used, plus an FWC rules course. Homeowners using a single regular-sized cage trap on their own property are exempt; persons born on or before 1 June 1975 need only the rules course.
• Annual reporting of trapping activity by every registered trapper.
• Holding time cut from 24 hours to 12 before release, relocation or humane euthanasia.
• Snares must meet cable-restraint specifications; snares that do not are prohibited.
• Glue traps prohibited outdoors.
• Large cage traps that do not comply may still be used until 1 July 2029.

Until 31 December 2026 the current rules stand, including the 24-hour check interval in 68A-24.002(1).¹¹ After that date, assume none of the trapping answers on this page survive unchanged and re-read the rule.

Nothing has changed the shooting answers. No amendment has altered the coyote’s furbearer classification, the year-round season, the absence of a bag limit, or the private-land night permission in 68A-4.002(2).

Coyotes in Florida

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

Yes — in all 67 counties. FWC records that coyotes began expanding into northwestern Florida in the 1970s and are now naturalized statewide, from the panhandle to the southern peninsula.²⁶

FWC publishes no population estimate. Coyotes are established in the Everglades agricultural fringe, throughout central Florida ranchland, and across the suburban edges of every major metro — Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and the southeast coast included.

Florida has no wolves, so there is no misidentification risk of the kind that catches Midwest hunters. The animal you need to be sure about is a domestic dog, and on the ranch edges that is a real risk.

Are Florida coyotes dangerous to people or pets?

To people, very rarely. To pets, genuinely — and Florida’s year-round warm weather means more small dogs and cats outdoors at night than in most states.

FWC’s guidance is prevention-first: secure garbage, remove pet food, secure livestock, keep pets in enclosed areas and walk dogs on a short leash. It also states plainly that feeding coyotes is illegal and that fed coyotes lose their fear of people.²⁶

For ranchers the concern is calves and small stock; for the citrus and vegetable belt it is more often poultry.

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

Breeding is once a year in late winter, with a 63-day gestation and litters of four to six pups. Pups emerge from the den at around three weeks, and parental care runs about nine months.²⁶

For a hunter that puts the best calling in January and February, when pairs are territorial and responsive, and a second window in late summer when juveniles are dispersing and inexperienced.

When are coyotes most active in Florida?

First and last light year-round, with heavy nocturnal movement — more so than in northern states, because Florida’s daytime heat pushes activity into the dark for most of the year.

That makes the private-land night permission the most valuable thing in Florida’s rulebook, and it is why the landowner relationship is worth more here than the gear is.

For the full breakdown of season, weather and moon phase, see when to hunt coyotes.

Are there black coyotes in Florida?

Yes, and Florida produces more of them than almost anywhere. Melanistic coyotes are reported regularly across the Southeast, and Florida and Georgia are the two states where sightings are most common. The trait traces to historical hybridization with domestic dogs.

There is no separate rule for a black coyote. It is a furbearer like any other.

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 Florida

Florida reads as a permissive state and mostly is, but the permissions and the restrictions come from different places, and mixing them up is how people get into trouble.

Six things to get right:

The classification does the work. Coyote is a furbearer. Florida’s methods rule is titled General Methods of Taking Game and Crows and every prohibition in it — magazines, lights, recorded calls, decoys, bait, waste, vehicles — is scoped to game. None of it reaches a coyote.

Night hunting is a property right, not a hunting right. Only the landowner or their designee, only on privately owned land. It is not statewide, it does not travel onto a WMA, and no license buys it.

The nuisance rule and the hunting rule disagree. 68A-9.010 forbids gun and light for nuisance take. If you are out at night with a light, you are hunting under 68A-4.002(2) and you need the landowner relationship.

A light plus a deer rifle at night is evidence of something else. §379.404(2) is a deer statute with a landowner carve-out, and it is why thermal is the quieter choice in Florida in more than one sense.

Coyote dogs need GPS and correction collars. Named in the rule, coyote among the four species. A plain collar is an offence.

Your trapping answers expire on 31 December 2026. Training, registration, annual reporting and a 12-hour holding limit arrive together.

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

No, not as a pet. Florida classifies coyotes as Class II captive wildlife — the same category as cougars’ smaller cousins and wolves:

Class II: … Wolves, coyotes, jackals (family Canidae)⁴⁰

Class II possession requires an FWC permit, documented experience and caging that meets the Commission’s specifications. It is a license written for exhibitors and professional facilities, not for a household.

Taking a coyote alive from the wild to keep is separately barred: a coyote may be possessed or transported alive only as the nuisance, rehabilitation and captive-wildlife rules allow.¹¹

If you have found an orphaned pup, call FWC at 850-488-4676 or a licensed wildlife rehabilitator rather than keeping it.

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