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

Coyote classification & license in Minnesota

What is the classification of coyotes in Minnesota?

An unprotected wild animal. The coyote is named in the statutory definition:

“Unprotected wild animals” means wild animals that are not protected wild animals including coyote, plains pocket gopher, porcupine, striped skunk, and unprotected birds¹

The booklet repeats it in the list a hunter actually reads:

Unprotected mammals include: coyotes, plains pocket gophers, porcupines, red/pine squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), striped skunks, and woodchucks.²

The definition of protected is where Minnesota gets interesting, and it is the sentence that explains the whole page. A protected wild animal includes any animal “protected by a restriction in the time or manner of taking”:

other than a restriction in the use of artificial lights, poison, or motor vehicles³

Read that twice. Minnesota puts exactly three restrictions on unprotected animals — lights, poison and motor vehicles — and then writes those three out of the definition of protection so that imposing them does not accidentally promote the coyote into a protected species. The carve-out is deliberate, and it tells you where every remaining rule on this page comes from.

Coyote is also not small game. Minnesota’s small game definition is a closed list, and it names red fox and gray fox but not coyote:

“Small game” means game birds, gray squirrel, fox squirrel, cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, jack rabbit, raccoon, lynx, bobcat, short-tailed weasel, long-tailed weasel, wolf, red fox and gray fox, fisher, pine marten, opossum, badger, cougar, wolverine, muskrat, mink, otter, and beaver.⁴

That single omission is worth more to a coyote hunter than any other line in Minnesota law. It removes the license requirement, the blaze orange requirement outside deer season, and the drone and wireless-device prohibition — all of which are written against small game and therefore never reach the coyote.

Are coyotes protected in Minnesota?

No. There is no closed season, no bag limit and no protection of any kind. Unprotected animals “may be taken at any time.”²

One enormous caveat, and it is the most important sentence on this page: the wolf is protected, and it lives here. Minnesota has the largest wolf population in the lower 48 and there is no open season on wolves.⁵ The DNR devotes a full page of the booklet to telling coyote hunters apart from wolf hunters, and it is blunt about why — see know your target below.

Is a hunting license required to hunt coyotes in Minnesota?

No. The DNR answers this in its own words, under its own heading:

Do I need a license to hunt unprotected species? No. Residents and nonresidents are not required to have a license to hunt unprotected species including coyote.⁶

And again, unambiguously, in the small game section:

A small game license is not needed to take coyotes with a firearm.⁷

This is genuinely unusual. Minnesota is one of a small handful of states where a non-resident can drive in, hunt coyotes on permitted private ground, and drive home without buying anything.

Two things the free pass does not cover. Trapping is licensed separately — see trapping. And fox is not coyote: red and gray fox are small game, so a fox needs a small game license even though the light and thermal rules treat fox and coyote identically.⁷ If you are calling both, buy the license.

Non-residents need no license for coyotes either, and the booklet says so in terms — see non-residents.

Is hunter education required in Minnesota?

Not to hunt coyotes, because the requirement attaches to buying a license rather than to hunting:

a person born after December 31, 1979, may not obtain an annual license to take wild animals by firearms unless the person has: (1) a firearms safety certificate or equivalent certificate⁸

No license is required for coyote, so no certificate is triggered. The moment you add any small game — fox included — the certificate requirement arrives with the license.

Trapper education is a separate requirement with a different cut-off: anyone born after 31 December 1989 needs a trapper education certificate or an apprentice validation before a trapping license will be issued.⁹

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in Minnesota?

Yes, with no license at all. The booklet spells out the non-resident position:

A nonresident must have a nonresident furbearer license and a nonresident small game license to take raccoon and bobcat by firearm. A nonresident furbearer license is not required to take fox and coyote. However, a small game license is still required to take fox and other small game.⁷

Coyote sits outside both requirements. For reference, if you do want the fox as well, a non-resident small game license is $102.¹⁰

Trapping is the exception, and it is a hard one. Non-residents “may trap only on land they own in Minnesota with nonresident trapping and small game licenses.”¹¹ There is no non-resident trapping in Minnesota unless you own Minnesota dirt.

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 Minnesota

What is the season for coyote hunting in Minnesota?

Continuous. The furbearer season table gives coyote its own row and one word:

Every day of the year, statewide, with no closed period around denning, pupping or deer season.

What is the bag limit for coyotes in Minnesota?

No limit, daily or seasonal.¹²

What are the legal hunting hours for coyotes in Minnesota?

None — you may hunt coyotes at any hour, and this is a scoping result rather than a special permission. Minnesota’s shooting-hours statute restricts only protected animals:

A person may not take protected wild animals, except raccoon and fox, with a firearm between the evening and morning times established by commissioner’s rule¹³

The coyote is not a protected wild animal, so the statute never reaches it. That is why the seasons table sends you to the unprotected-animals page instead of printing a time.¹²

Midnight in July is as legal as noon in January. What changes after dark is not whether you may hunt but how you are allowed to see — see night hunting.

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

Yes, and the deer season is the one calendar that genuinely constrains coyote hunting in Minnesota. Three things change while a deer season is open:

1. Night vision and thermal become illegal. The exemption that makes them lawful the rest of the year says so expressly: “the equipment must not be possessed during the regular firearms deer season.”¹⁴ For 2026 the statewide firearms seasons are 7–22 November (100 series) and 7–15 November (200 series), with a late Southeast season 21–29 November and the metro zone DPA 601 running 7–29 November.¹⁵ Because those dates differ by deer permit area, check your own DPA rather than carrying “the first three weeks of November” forward.

2. Blaze orange becomes mandatory. The exemption for predator hunters only exists when no firearms or muzzleloader deer season is open:

All hunters and trappers in the field during the open firearms/muzzleloader deer seasons must display blaze orange or pink on the visible portion of the person’s cap (if worn) and outer clothing above the waist, excluding sleeves and gloves.¹⁶

Note that this one catches the muzzleloader season too — 28 November to 13 December in 2026 — which the night vision rule does not.¹⁵ There is a stretch of early December when thermal is legal again but blaze is still required.

3. Firearm transport rules tighten. Uncased transport is restricted “as otherwise restricted in laws related to game refuges, shining, thermal imaging or night vision laws.”¹⁷

Night hunting in Minnesota

Can you hunt coyotes at night in Minnesota?

Yes, every night of the year. There is no night season to be inside of, because there are no shooting hours to be outside of — see legal hunting hours above.

The entire regulatory weight falls on your optics, and Minnesota splits them into two very different regimes. This is the table to remember:

Read across those rows and the conclusion is unavoidable: in Minnesota, thermal is the permissive option and the flashlight is the restricted one. If you are buying one piece of night equipment for this state, the light is not it.

Can you use artificial lights for coyote hunting in Minnesota?

Only between 1 January and 15 March, and only under five conditions at once. The exception is written in the statute and reprinted in the booklet:

A person hunting for coyote or fox from January 1-March 15 may use an artificial light (either carried in the hand or attached to the person) under ALL of the following conditions:

• While on foot and not within a public right of way
• Using a shotgun
• Using a calling device
• Not within 200 feet of a vehicle¹⁸

The statute adds the definitional detail that “handheld artificial light” means “an artificial light that is carried in the hand or attached to the person” — so a headlamp or a gun-mounted light qualifies, and a light on the truck does not.¹⁹

Outside that window there is no coyote lighting exception at all. The general prohibition is broad:

A person cannot shine artificial light (for example; onto a highway, field, or forest) to find or take a wild animal while possessing a gun, bow, or any other tool that could be used to hunt big game, small game, or unprotected animals, whether alone or with others.²⁰

Three further limits apply even inside the window. You may not shine onto land posted with “No Shining” signs, you may not shine from a vehicle onto fenced agricultural land, residential property or building sites, and from two hours after sunset until sunrise nobody may shine a field or forest to locate a wild animal at all.²⁰

Can you use night vision in Minnesota?

Yes, and this is the answer that has changed most since the last time most people checked. The general prohibition on night vision and thermal carries an express coyote exemption:

This section does not apply to night vision, night vision enhanced with an infrared illuminator, or thermal imaging equipment possessed by … a person taking coyote or fox as provided under section 97B.075 and rules adopted under section 97B.605, but the equipment must not be possessed during the regular firearms deer season.¹⁴

The booklet states it in plain language and adds the detail that matters:

A person legally taking coyote or fox may use night vision or thermal imaging equipment, including infrared illuminators to enhance night vision equipment. This exception does not apply when hunting other species or during the regular firearms deer season.²¹

The infrared illuminator permission is the quiet win. An IR illuminator is an artificial light source, and outside this exemption the shining statute would be a real problem for digital night vision. The DNR names it expressly as part of the exemption, so a Gen-3 tube or a digital unit with an IR lamp is on the right side of the line.

Note the scope carefully: the exemption belongs to “a person taking coyote or fox.” It is not a general permission to carry thermal in the woods. Carrying it while hunting anything else, or during the regular firearms deer season, puts you back under the flat prohibition.¹⁴

Can you use thermal in Minnesota?

Yes, on the same terms as night vision — the exemption names both in the same clause.¹⁴

No permit, no registration, no color or power limit, no shotgun requirement, no 200-foot rule and no date window except the deer season blackout. A thermal scope on a centerfire rifle, in June, at two in the morning, on private ground you have permission to hunt, is lawful in Minnesota.

For what to buy first and why a modest thermal beats an expensive light in a state built like this, see hunting coyotes at night.

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

Yes, but only if you are using a light. The 1 January – 15 March lighting exception requires a shotgun, and there is no rifle version of it.¹⁸

Under night vision or thermal there is no weapon restriction, because the exemption is written about the equipment rather than the gun.¹⁴ That is the mechanism behind the whole inversion: Minnesota regulates the light, and thermal is not a light.

Firearms, ammunition & suppressors in Minnesota

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

Effectively none, by day. Unprotected animals “may be taken in any manner,” subject only to the lights, poison and motor vehicle limits.²² The one general firearms rule in the game and fish laws is scoped to protected animals:

A person may not use a firearm with a bore larger than a ten gauge to take a protected wild animal.²³

A coyote is not a protected wild animal, so even that does not formally reach it.

By night with a light, shotgun only.¹⁸ By night with thermal or night vision, anything you like.¹⁴

County ordinances are now a live issue. In 2025 the legislature eliminated the statewide shotgun zone, and counties may pass their own ordinances restricting firearm type — the booklet notes “a county may pass an ordinance to remain shotgun only.”²⁴ That authority is written for deer hunting, but it is new, it is county by county, and it is worth a phone call before you show up in southern Minnesota with a rifle.

Are suppressors allowed for coyote hunting in Minnesota?

Yes. Minnesota’s prohibition is gone. Until 2015 the game and fish laws carried a flat ban:

Subd. 4. Silencers prohibited. Except as provided in section 609.66, subdivision 1h, a person may not own or possess a silencer for a firearm or a firearm equipped to have a silencer attached.²⁵

The 2015 legislature repealed that subdivision and the criminal-code provision behind it in the same act, and neither has been replaced.²⁶ Nothing in the current hunting regulations restricts suppressor use.

Two state rules still apply. The criminal code makes it a felony to sell or possess “a suppressor that is not lawfully possessed under federal law,”²⁷ so the federal registration is what keeps an owner legal. And a game violation committed with a suppressed firearm costs more than usual: anyone convicted of trespass, hunting game in closed season, hunting outside shooting hours, or shining while armed, who “possessed a firearm with a suppressor,” may not hold a hunting license or hunt for five years.²⁸

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.²⁹

Are there any ammunition restrictions in Minnesota?

No coyote-specific restrictions. Lead is permitted for coyotes across the state, with two exceptions worth knowing:

Lead shot may be used statewide for hunting other small game except in federal Wildlife Refuges and Waterfowl Production Areas.³⁰

Non-toxic requirements also attach to hunts in certain state parks and scientific and natural areas.³⁰ On ordinary private and WMA ground, load what you like.

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

Yes, by day. There is no minimum caliber for unprotected animals — Minnesota’s caliber floor of .22 with centerfire ignition is written for big game and wolves, not coyotes.³¹

At night with a light, no — the exception requires a shotgun.¹⁸ Under thermal, a rimfire is lawful, though a .22 LR is a poor choice on a January coyote at any distance.

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

No. Minnesota sets no magazine capacity limit for hunting and no general capacity limit in its firearms law. A standard AR-15 is lawful for coyotes, day or night, subject to the shotgun requirement if you are working under a light.

Calls, decoys, bait & dogs in Minnesota

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in Minnesota?

Yes, including remote-controlled units. The DNR lists the exception among its rules on wireless devices:

A remote controlled animal noise caller can be used for crows, furbearing animals and unprotected animals.³²

The coyote is an unprotected animal, so a modern remote-controlled caller is squarely permitted. Note also that a calling device is not merely allowed but required if you are hunting under the winter lighting exception — Minnesota will not let you spotlight a coyote you did not call.¹⁸

Are decoys allowed for coyote hunting in Minnesota?

Yes, including motorized ones. Minnesota’s decoy prohibitions are specific and they name deer: “Electronic/motorized deer decoys are prohibited.”³² Nothing restricts decoys for unprotected animals.

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in Minnesota?

Yes for coyotes, and this is another scoping answer. Minnesota’s baiting prohibitions are written for deer and for turkey — “Hunters are not allowed to take deer with the aid or use of bait,” “Hunting turkeys over bait is not allowed” — and unprotected animals may be taken “in any manner” subject only to the three named limits.²²

The contamination trap is real and it is expensive. Baited ground is baited ground for deer regardless of who put the bait out or why. If there is any chance you will hunt deer on that parcel, do not bait it for coyotes.

Trapping has its own bait rules, which are stricter: rabbit and hare flesh may not be used as bait and other meat must be exposed to air for at least 24 hours before use,³³ and no foothold trap may be set within 20 feet of bait visible to soaring birds.³⁴

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in Minnesota?

Yes, and Minnesota has a long tradition of it in the western farm country. Two constraints apply.

Trespass, which the booklet raises specifically against coyote hunters:

You may not take a wild animal on land that you are prohibited from lawfully entering. This prohibition includes coyote hunters intentionally running their dogs on posted or agricultural land without permission of the landowner, occupant, or lessee.³⁵

Running dogs onto ground you do not have permission for is the offence, and it is called out by name because it kept happening.

Big game. “No persons may allow their dog to chase or kill big game,” and between 1 January and 14 July a dog seen chasing big game dangerously may be killed by any person.³⁶ That window sits directly on top of the best coyote hound running of the year.

Dogs may not be trained on DNR-administered land from 16 April to 14 July.³⁶

Private property, vehicles & public land access in Minnesota

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

On rural private land with permission, yes — no license, no season, no hours.

Two limits are set in the trespass law rather than the hunting rules. You need permission before entering posted or agricultural land at all, and:

On private land or public right-of-way, you cannot fire a gun within 500 feet of a building with people or livestock, unless it’s your property or you have written permission.³⁷

In town, municipal discharge ordinances govern and generally prohibit it outright.

Can you hunt coyotes from a motorized vehicle in Minnesota?

No. This is one of the three restrictions Minnesota keeps on unprotected animals:

Unprotected birds and mammals may be taken in any manner, except with the aid of artificial lights or by using a motor vehicle to drive, chase, run over, or kill the animal.²²

And generally:

No person may take a wild animal with a firearm or bow from a motor vehicle, except hunters with a disability permit.³⁸

Minnesota does issue a permit allowing a person with a disability to take wild animals from a vehicle on public land or on private land with permission.³⁹

Drones are the interesting sub-case, and radios now have their own answer — see can you use two-way radios. The prohibition on drones and wireless devices is scoped to big game and small game, neither of which a coyote is, but do not read the radio carve-out as permission to fly a drone at a coyote.

Can you hunt coyotes on public land in Minnesota?

Yes, with a spring and summer closure on WMAs. Unprotected animals, coyote included, “may not be taken within wildlife management areas from March 1 to August 31, except by a person lawfully hunting a protected species” (a spring turkey hunter, for example).⁴⁰ State forests and county land are open to coyote hunting all year on the general rules, and Minnesota has a great deal of all three. Individual units set their own restrictions, and non-toxic ammunition requirements apply on some state parks and scientific and natural areas.³⁰

Federal refuges are the exception to check. Refuges and waterfowl production areas set their own species lists, drones are prohibited on them outright, and some are closed to predator hunting entirely.⁴¹ Check the individual refuge before you plan a trip around one.

Is it legal to trap or snare coyotes in Minnesota?

Yes, and unlike hunting, trapping is licensed. The requirement is written for small game and furbearers, and the coyote sits awkwardly beside it — but the practical answer from the DNR’s own trapping section is that residents 16 and over need a small game license and a trapping license to trap, and non-residents may trap only on land they own in Minnesota.¹¹

Trap specifications apply: foothold traps may not exceed an 8¾-inch jaw opening, body-gripping traps 7½ inches, with extra conditions on public land for body-grips between 6½ and 7½ inches.⁴²

One rule is written specifically for unprotected animals, and it is a genuine convenience:

From April 1 to August 31, the trap identification provisions listed above do not apply to traps set for the taking of unprotected wild animals.⁴³

Because trapping rules are written around species that a coyote set will also catch, confirm your specific setup with a conservation officer before the first season. The license question in particular is worth a phone call to 888-646-6367 rather than an inference from this page.

Is it legal to poison coyotes in Minnesota?

This is the rare state where the answer is a qualified yes, and it is the third of the three restrictions carved out of the protected-animal definition. The booklet says:

Poisons may be used only when the safety of humans and animals is ensured and in accordance with state and federal restrictions.⁴⁴

Read the conditions rather than the permission. Predator toxicants are restricted-use pesticides under federal law, sodium cyanide devices and Compound 1080 are tightly controlled and handled through USDA Wildlife Services, and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture regulates applicator licensing. In practice a private individual cannot lawfully assemble a legal poisoning of a coyote. For protected species the answer is a flat no — “Poison or explosives are not a legal method of take for protected animals.”⁴⁴

Are there protected areas or additional local restrictions in Minnesota?

Yes, four kinds:

• Federal refuges and waterfowl production areas set their own rules and some are closed to coyote hunting.⁴¹
• State parks and scientific and natural areas carry non-toxic ammunition requirements and limited hunting access.³⁰
• County firearm ordinances, newly enabled in 2025, may restrict weapon type.²⁴
• Municipal discharge ordinances govern anywhere near a town, and firearms must be transported unloaded and cased within Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey counties and within any city of 2,500 or more.¹⁷

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

Yes, and Minnesota is unusually direct about it. The booklet asks the question in its own words and answers it:

“Can I use wireless devices to take game? No. Using walkie talkies, cell phones, remote control or other radio equipment, including drones, to take big game or small game is unlawful. A person may use radio equipment without a permit to take unprotected wild animals.”³²

A coyote is an unprotected wild animal in Minnesota, so the carve-out is the sentence that applies to you. See the classification.

Do not stretch it to drones. The carve-out is written about radio equipment; the prohibition it sits under names drones in the same breath as walkie talkies, and nothing here turns a coyote’s unprotected status into permission to fly one.

After the shot: pelts, bounties & contests in Minnesota

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

No registration, no tagging, no seal. Minnesota’s pelt registration requirements attach to bobcat, fisher, pine marten and otter — the CITES species — not to coyote.⁴⁵

Because the coyote is unprotected, the general possession restriction does not reach it either: “A person may not take, buy, sell, transport, or possess a protected wild animal unless allowed by the game and fish laws.”⁴⁶

Check the receiving state’s import rules before hauling carcasses across a line, and note that live coyotes are a different matter entirely — importing or exporting a live one requires the commissioner’s authorization.

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

You can sell them without a license; the buyer needs one.

A hunter or trapper may sell the pelts of legally taken furbearers to a licensed fur buyer. A person may not buy raw furs without a fur buyer’s license, except a fur manufacturer or licensed taxidermist may buy raw furs from a licensed fur buyer.⁴⁷

Minnesota coyotes carry genuinely good fur. Northern Minnesota pelts are among the heaviest in the eastern half of the country, and prime December-to-February fur out of the northern zone is worth handling properly rather than skinning in a hurry.

Is there a coyote bounty program in Minnesota?

Not from the state — but Minnesota is one of the few states whose legislature has expressly authorized counties to run one, in a statute written for exactly this purpose:

348.125 COYOTE CONFLICT MANAGEMENT OPTION. A county or town board may, by resolution, offer a bounty for the taking of coyotes (Canis latrans) by all legal methods. The resolution may be made applicable to the whole or any part of the county or town. The bounty must apply during the months specified in the resolution and be in an amount determined by the board.⁴⁸

Three features are worth reading off the text. The authority runs to town boards as well as counties, so a bounty can exist across one township and not the next. It can be limited to particular months. And the amount is entirely local.

The state publishes no list of which boards have adopted resolutions, so the only reliable check is a call to the county auditor or the town clerk where you hunt. Note the general bounty statute next door, 348.12, reaches only gophers and ground squirrels — the coyote needed its own section, and got one.⁴⁹

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

Yes to both. Minnesota has not restricted predator hunting contests. There is no permit requirement, no registration and no prohibition in the game and fish laws, in the hunting rules or in the 2026–2027 booklet — which is consistent with a species carrying no season, no limit and no license requirement.

Winter tournaments run across the state and across the Wisconsin, Iowa and Dakota lines. Two scheduling notes for organizers: a night round is unrestricted under thermal but confined to shotguns and to 1 January – 15 March if teams will be running lights, and no round should be scheduled into the November firearms deer season, when thermal must be left at home and blaze orange is mandatory.¹⁴¹⁶

Coyotes in Minnesota

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

Yes, statewide. The DNR’s own summary is short: they “are found throughout the state” and “are increasing in southern Minnesota, including the Twin Cities area.”⁵⁰

The densities follow the farmland. Western and southern Minnesota — row crop, pasture, brushy draws and river bottoms — hold the most coyotes and the most accessible hunting. The northern forest holds fewer, and holds wolves, which changes the calculation entirely.

Minnesota publishes no statewide population estimate.

Are Minnesota coyotes dangerous to people or pets?

To people, very rarely. Minnesota coyotes are small — the DNR puts adult females at about 25 pounds and males about 30⁵⁰ — and they are not, on the record, a meaningful physical threat to adults.

To livestock and pets they are the state’s principal predator problem. The DNR’s own diet summary names “livestock such as sheep and small calves,”⁵⁰ and the existence of a coyote-specific county bounty statute tells you the legislature has heard about it.⁴⁸ Unattended cats and small dogs on the suburban fringe are at genuine risk, particularly in the metro, where the population is growing.

How do I tell a coyote from a wolf in Minnesota?

This is the question that matters most in Minnesota, and getting it wrong is a crime. The DNR gives it a full page under the heading “Coyote hunters—know your target”:

Wolves have been mistakenly shot outside Minnesota’s primary wolf range because hunters thought they were coyotes. Wolves were once restricted to the northern part of Minnesota, but they have expanded their range and could show up in any part of the state. Do not assume that because you are outside Minnesota’s primary wolf range that the animal in your sights is a coyote. … Shooting a wolf because you think it is a coyote is illegal and punishable by Minnesota game and fish laws.⁵¹

There is no open season on wolves in Minnesota.⁵ The DNR’s side-by-side is the one to memorise:⁵¹

Two practical points the table does not give you. Size is unreliable through thermal, which strips exactly the cues — coat color, muzzle proportion, ear size relative to head — that separate the two, and a wolf at 200 yards through a 384 sensor is a white blob the size you decide it is. And the range warning is the operative sentence: the DNR is telling you not to use geography as an identification method. If you cannot rule out a wolf, do not shoot.

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

The DNR gives the calendar directly:

The mating season begins in January and lasts through February… Five to seven pups are born in April.⁵⁰

Note how neatly that lines up with the lighting window. The 1 January – 15 March exception covers the breeding season almost exactly — the period of maximum territorial response to howling, the most aggressive coming to a call, and the best fur of the year. Minnesota did not hand you an arbitrary 74 days; it handed you the best 74 days, and then told you to use a shotgun.

When are coyotes most active in Minnesota?

First and last light year-round, with heavy movement all night. Winter concentrates them — deep snow pushes coyotes onto plowed field edges, frozen wetlands and deer carcasses, and open country in February is as good as Minnesota gets.

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

Are there black coyotes in Minnesota?

Yes, though they are rare. The DNR’s color description for coyotes includes black: “all shades of gray, tan, buff, rarely black or white.”⁵¹

Melanism in coyotes traces to historical hybridization with domestic dogs and is far more common in the Southeast than in the Upper Midwest. A large black canid in Minnesota deserves a second look before a shot — black is also listed as an occasional wolf color in the same DNR table.⁵¹

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 Minnesota

Minnesota is, on paper, one of the freest coyote states in the country: no license, no season, no limit, no hours, no caliber floor, no magazine limit, suppressors fine, e-calls fine, bait fine, dogs fine. The whole regulatory structure fits into three restrictions — lights, poison and motor vehicles — and one of those three has a coyote exception.

Five things to get right:

Buy thermal, not a light. The winter lighting exception costs you your rifle, your truck and ten months of the year. The thermal exemption costs you three weeks in November. This is not a close call, and it is the single most useful thing on this page.

Put the thermal away for deer season. “Must not be possessed during the regular firearms deer season” is a possession offence, not a use offence — leaving it in the truck is not a defense. Check your deer permit area, because the dates differ.

Blaze orange outlasts the thermal ban. The muzzleloader season runs to 13 December and blaze is required through it, even though night vision is legal again.

Know your target, every single time. Minnesota has more wolves than any state outside Alaska, they are protected, they are expanding south, and the DNR has put “do not assume” in writing. Thermal makes this harder, not easier.

Check the township, not just the county. Bounties come from town boards as well as county boards, and the new firearm-type ordinances come from counties. Neither is published in one place.

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

No. The general rule vests ownership of wild animals in the state and prohibits possession of protected wild animals except as the game and fish laws allow.⁴⁶ Coyotes are not on Minnesota’s list of animals a private individual may keep, and the permits that do exist are issued for rehabilitation, exhibition and research rather than for pets. Local ordinances add their own prohibitions.

If you have found an orphaned pup, contact the DNR or a licensed wildlife rehabilitator rather than keeping it.

Know something we missed? Contact me and I’ll get it fixed.