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

Coyote classification & license in Wyoming

What is the classification of coyotes in Wyoming?

Coyotes are predatory animals, first in the statutory list:

“Predatory animal” means: (A) Coyote, jackrabbit, porcupine, raccoon, red fox, skunk or stray cat²

Wyoming’s classification does more work than most states’ because of what it does to the Game and Fish Commission’s power. The Commission’s authority to fix seasons and bag limits is granted “on any species or sex of wildlife for any type of legal weapon, except predatory animals, predacious birds, protected animals, and protected birds.”³ The Commission cannot close a coyote season or set a coyote limit, because it has never been given the power to. Compare Colorado, where the commission did exactly that in July 2026.

Coyote is also outside every other category that carries a restriction. It is not a small game animal — that term means “cottontail rabbit or snowshoe hare, and fox, grey and red squirrels,” and nothing else.⁴ It is not a big game or trophy game animal. So the rules written for those categories — shooting hours, hunter orange, the thermal ban, the wilderness guide requirement — do not reach it. Each of those is worked through below.

Are coyotes protected in Wyoming?

No. There is no closed season, no bag limit and no possession limit, and the only statutory protection a coyote has is against cruelty: nobody may “knowingly, and with intent to cause undue suffering, torture, torment or mutilate living wildlife, including predatory animals,” after reducing it to possession, and anything caught alive must be “promptly killed or released.”¹

Is a hunting license required to hunt coyotes in Wyoming?

No license, no permit, no stamp, no tag. The statute is unambiguous:

Predatory animals and predacious birds may be taken without a license in any manner and at any time except as provided by W.S. 6-3-1005(a)(iii), 23-2-303(d) and (e), 23-3-112, 23-3-304(b), 23-3-305, 23-3-306(b) and 23-3-307¹

Those seven cross-references are the whole of Wyoming coyote law, and this page is essentially a walk through them:

Wyoming and Utah are the only two states on this site where you may hunt coyotes without buying anything at all.

Non-residents are on exactly the same footing, with nothing to buy — see non-residents.

Is hunter education required in Wyoming?

Yes, if you were born on or after 1 January 1966 — and this catches people precisely because no license is required, so there is nothing in the purchase process to remind you:

no person born on or after January 1, 1966, may take any wildlife by the use of firearms on land other than that of his own family, unless the person possesses or can demonstrate they have obtained a certificate of competency and safety in the use and handling of firearms⁵

Note the scope: any wildlife, on land other than your own family’s. A coyote is wildlife. Wyoming accepts certificates from courses approved by the Commission, including out-of-state ones, and runs a mentored one-year special authorization for people who have not taken the course.⁵

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in Wyoming?

Yes, on exactly the same terms as a resident — nothing to buy, no draw, no quota.

And one Wyoming trap does not apply. Non-residents may not hunt big or trophy game in a designated wilderness area without a licensed professional or resident guide, at one guide per two hunters.⁶ That requirement names big and trophy game. A coyote is neither, so a non-resident may hunt coyotes in Wyoming wilderness unguided. It is one of very few places in the West where that is true.

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 Wyoming

What is the season for coyote hunting in Wyoming?

Year-round, and structurally so — “at any time” is in the statute, and the Commission has no authority to set a season for a predatory animal.^{1 3}

What is the bag limit for coyotes in Wyoming?

None, for the same reason. No daily bag, no possession limit.³

What are the legal hunting hours for coyotes in Wyoming?

There are none. The shooting-hours rule is scoped to categories a coyote is not in:

Big game, trophy game and small game animals may only be taken from one-half (1/2) hour before sunrise to one-half (1/2) hour after sunset.⁷

Small game means rabbits, hares and squirrels.⁴ Coyotes are predatory animals, outside all three named categories, so the clock does not bind them — “at any time” in the statute means what it says.¹

What does bind you after dark is the artificial-light statute and the private-land night rule. See night hunting.

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

Yes, with no caliber cap, no orange requirement and no seasonal closure on the coyote itself.

Hunter orange is not required of you. The statute applies to anyone hunting “any big or trophy game animal,” which a coyote is not.⁸ Wear it anyway in October — the same public land will be full of elk hunters who are wearing it because they must.

The autumn constraint in Wyoming is on the night side, not the day side. Public-land night hunting with light or thermal is closed 1 September to 31 December, which is the whole of the big game season.⁹ Plan thermal trips for January to August.

Night hunting coyotes in Wyoming

Can you hunt coyotes at night in Wyoming?

Yes — and since 2023 that includes public land, which is the single biggest change to Wyoming coyote hunting in a generation. Older write-ups, including the version of this page that stood here for years, say public-land night hunting is prohibited. It was, until HB0104 rewrote the statute.¹⁰

The general rule is still a prohibition, and the coyote exception is written into it:

No person shall take any wildlife with the aid of or by using any artificial light or lighting device except as otherwise provided in subsections (f) through (h) of this section and except that predatory animals may be taken with the aid of an artificial light or lighting device including thermal or infrared imaging or other light imaging by:

(i) A public officer authorized to and conducting predator control;

(ii) A landowner, resident manager, or person with the landowner’s or a resident manager’s written permission to take predatory animals, on land under the landowner’s control for the protection of his property;

(iii) Any person taking a predatory animal on public or state land, subject to limitations established by the commission¹¹

Three routes, and they are not interchangeable. Read on for what each one costs you.

There is also a separate night rule for private ground that applies to all hunting, not just lights: “No person shall hunt at night upon privately owned or leased lands except with written permission of the landowner or lessee.”¹² Written, again — the same word Colorado uses, and the same trap.

Can you use artificial lights for coyote hunting in Wyoming?

Yes, by whichever of the three routes fits.

On private land, the statute permits the landowner, resident manager, or anyone holding the landowner’s or resident manager’s written permission, “on land under the landowner’s control for the protection of his property.”¹¹ That last clause is a purpose limitation and it is easy to skate past — the private-land route is written as property protection, not recreation. Pair it with the written night permission required by 23-3-305 and get both in one document.

On public or state land, the statute opens the door and the Commission sets the terms — see the two conditions below.^{11 9}

As a public officer conducting predator control, which is the county predator board and USDA Wildlife Services route. See bounties.

And a prima facie provision worth knowing: it is evidence of a violation “if a person uses an artificial light in an area which may be inhabited by wildlife while having in his possession and control any device for taking wildlife.”¹¹ Scanning with a rifle in the truck, outside one of the three routes, is the offence.

Raccoon hunters get their own carve-out — hunting raccoon on foot with a handlight is allowed if you are accompanied by a raccoon dog, with written landowner permission on private ground.¹¹ That is not a coyote permission.

Can you use night vision in Wyoming?

Yes. Wyoming does not treat night vision separately — the statute lumps “artificial light or lighting device including thermal or infrared imaging or other light imaging” into one phrase, and permits the whole phrase for predatory animals by the three routes above.¹¹

The Commission’s own thermal prohibition, which exists and is strict, is scoped away from you:

No person shall use any device attached to a legal firearm, muzzleloader or archery equipment, capable of producing a thermal or infrared image, or other imaging outside the normal visible light spectrum, with the intent to spot, locate and aid in the taking of any big game animal, trophy game animal or wild bison.¹³

Big game, trophy game, bison. Not predatory animals. The same section bars real-time video and cellular trail cameras for those species and leaves store-only trail cameras alone.¹³

On public land, the thermal rules are night vision rules too. They are written for any “other light imaging device,” so night vision on public ground needs the activated infrared strobe beacon, and public-land night hunting with it is closed from September 1 to December 31.⁹ See thermal below for both.

Can you use thermal in Wyoming?

Yes, and Wyoming is one of the best thermal states in the West — with two conditions on public land that no other state imposes.

One: you must wear an infrared strobe beacon.

Any person hunting predatory animals on public land with an artificial light or lighting device, thermal or infrared imaging or other light imaging device shall display an activated infrared (IR) strobe beacon on their person visible from at least one hundred (100) yards in every direction. If the predator hunter is enclosed inside a vehicle, an activated IR strobe beacon shall be displayed on the exterior roof of the vehicle so as to be visible for at least one hundred (100) yards around the vehicle.⁹

It is a mutual-visibility rule: everyone out there is running thermal, so everyone is required to show up on everyone else’s. Buy the beacon with the optic — it is cheap, it is required equipment, and “visible from at least one hundred yards in every direction” is a specification, not a suggestion.

Two: the public-land season is closed for four months.

Hunting of predatory animals at night with artificial light or lighting devices, thermal or infrared imaging or other light imaging on public land shall be closed from September 1 through December 31.⁹

So public-land thermal runs 1 January to 31 August. Neither condition applies on private land — there, the statute’s landowner route governs and the Commission’s public-land specifications do not reach you.¹¹

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

No separate night weapons list. What changes at night is the beacon, the public-land closure, and the written permission on private ground — all covered above.^{9 12}

Firearms, ammunition & suppressors in Wyoming

Are suppressors allowed for coyote hunting in Wyoming?

Yes. Wyoming’s suppressor statute is a misuse provision, not a hunting restriction — it bars using a silencer “in the commission of” four specific offences, all of which involve taking a big or trophy game animal unlawfully.¹⁴ None of them can be committed against a coyote. Federal law still governs the can itself: ATF Form 4, tax stamp, approval.

A landowner can still tell you not to on their ground, which is a permission question rather than a legal one.

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

Anything except a machine gun. “In any manner” is the statutory standard, and the one firearm rule that reaches every species is short:

No person shall take any wildlife with any fully automatic weapon.¹⁴

No caliber floor or ceiling, no action-type restriction, no shotgun magazine plug, no archery restriction. Wyoming’s practical answer is a flat-shooting centerfire — .223, .22-250, .204 Ruger, .243 — because the country is open and the shots are long. See the best coyote gun.

Are there any ammunition restrictions in Wyoming?

None for coyotes on state and private ground. Federal refuges impose their own non-toxic requirements; check the specific unit.

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

Yes. No caliber restriction of any kind attaches to predatory animals.¹ Legal is not the same as adequate — a .22 LR on a Wyoming coyote at typical Wyoming range is a wounding tool.

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

No. Wyoming sets no magazine capacity limit in either its wildlife code or its criminal code, and imposes no permit or registration to buy a semi-automatic rifle. A standard AR-15 with a 30-round magazine is lawful for coyotes.

That is the opposite of both its neighbours to the south: Colorado caps magazines at fifteen rounds and, since August 2026, gates the purchase of a semi-auto behind a sheriff’s eligibility card, and California is stricter still. If you hunt across the state line, the magazine in your rifle is the thing that changes legality at the border.

Calls, decoys, bait & dogs in Wyoming

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in Wyoming?

Yes, with no restriction. “In any manner” covers electronic callers, and none of the seven excepted sections mentions calls.¹ There is no closed season and no hour when a caller becomes unlawful.

Are decoys allowed for coyote hunting in Wyoming?

Yes, including motion decoys. Nothing restricts them.¹

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in Wyoming?

Yes, with one prohibition and one trapping setback.

The prohibition is on what the bait is made of: “No person shall take a game animal, game bird, or game fish, and use any parts thereof, for bait to trap or poison any wildlife of Wyoming.”¹⁵ So you may not bait with deer, elk, antelope or trout. Livestock carcasses, road-killed non-game, and commercial bait are outside it.

The setback applies if you are also trapping: “No trap or snare shall be set for furbearing or predatory animals within thirty (30) feet of any exposed bait or carcass over five (5) pounds in weight.”¹⁶ Thirty feet, and “exposed bait or carcass” means meat or viscera of any mammal, bird or fish, excluding dried bones.¹⁶

Wyoming’s big game baiting prohibition is scoped to big game animals and does not reach coyotes.¹⁵

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in Wyoming?

Yes. “In any manner” covers the use of dogs, and no Wyoming rule restricts dogs on predatory animals.¹ Running coyotes with hounds is a live tradition on the eastern plains.

What you may not do is run them with a vehicle. If you injure or incapacitate a predatory animal with any vehicle, aircraft or snow machine, you “shall make a reasonable effort to immediately kill” it — and “incapacitate” is defined as injury or exhaustion to the point the animal has stopped trying to elude you.¹¹

Private property, vehicles & public land access in Wyoming

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

On rural private land, yes — with permission, and at night that permission must be in writing.¹²

Wyoming’s trespass statute for hunting is worth reading closely, because the legislature defined its key term in 2023:

No person shall enter upon, travel through or return across the private property of any person to take wildlife, hunt, fish, collect antlers or horns, or trap without the permission of the owner or person in charge of the property … For purposes of this subsection “travel through or return across” requires physically touching or driving on the surface of the private property.¹²

That definition is the reason corner crossing is now settled in Wyoming’s favor.

In a town, no. Municipal discharge ordinances govern, and no state rule overrides them.

Can you hunt coyotes from a motorized vehicle in Wyoming?

Yes — coyotes are the exception to Wyoming’s vehicle rule, and this surprises people. The prohibition is written against wildlife “that requires a license or permit to take,” is a protected animal or bird, or is federally listed:

No person shall harass, pursue, hunt, shoot, or kill any Wyoming wildlife that requires a license or permit to take, is protected under W.S. 23-1-101(a)(ix) and (x) or is classified as threatened or endangered by federal wildlife regulations, with, from, or by use of any aircraft, automotive vehicle, trailer, motor-propelled wheeled vehicle, or vehicle designed for travel over snow.¹¹

A coyote requires no license, so it sits outside that sentence. The same subsection separately bars using aircraft to aid in taking any Wyoming wildlife “except predatory animals” — and “aircraft” is defined to include unmanned aerial vehicles, so drones are lawful on coyotes in Wyoming, which is unusual.¹¹

Three real limits remain. You may not shoot from, upon, along or across any public road or highway, and no firearm may be fired from, upon, along or across one.¹² You may not fire a rifle from the enclosed land of one person onto or across the enclosed land of another without both owners’ permission.¹² And if you run an animal down with a vehicle and injure it, you must make a reasonable effort to kill it immediately.¹¹

Do not read the vehicle exception as an invitation. Road hunting is how access gets closed, and the public-road prohibition is the one Wyoming enforces hardest against coyote hunters.

Can you hunt coyotes on public land in Wyoming?

Yes, on roughly half the state — BLM, National Forest and state trust land — with no permit for the hunting itself. Public-land night hunting has its own two conditions, in night hunting.

Corner crossing is now lawful. On 18 March 2025 the Tenth Circuit held in Iron Bar Holdings, LLC v. Cape that stepping from one parcel of public land to another at a shared corner, without touching the private ground, is protected by the Unlawful Inclosures Act; the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal on 20 October 2025, leaving it settled across the Tenth Circuit — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma.¹⁷ It opens a great deal of checkerboarded BLM in Wyoming that was previously unreachable, and it lines up with the state’s own trespass definition, which requires physically touching the surface.¹²

Two cautions. The ruling protects crossing on foot without contact — it is not a right to drive across, and a ladder or step over the corner is the practical method. And a 2023 law makes it unlawful to restrict public land access with unauthorized signage, which is worth knowing when you meet a “no trespassing” sign on ground that is not private.¹⁰

Is it legal to trap or snare coyotes in Wyoming?

Yes, and no trapping license is required — that requirement attaches to furbearing animals, and coyote is a predatory animal, not a furbearer.¹

The trap rules still apply, and they are the second of the seven excepted sections:¹⁶

• every trap and snare must be permanently marked or tagged with the owner’s name and address, or the identification number the Department assigned them;
• no trap or snare set within thirty feet of exposed bait or a carcass over five pounds;
• all snares must carry a break-away device;
• steel-jawed leghold traps must be checked at least once every 72 hours;
• snares and quick-kill body-grip traps must be checked at least once a week;
• anything caught must be removed immediately on discovery.

Wyoming is at the permissive end here — Colorado, one state south, banned leghold traps, body-gripping traps and snares by constitutional amendment in 1996.

Is it legal to poison coyotes in Wyoming?

Not as a private individual acting on your own. This is a question where the wildlife code gives a misleading answer, so it is worth being precise.

The wildlife statute bans taking with poison, but names “any game animal, game bird, or game fish.”¹⁵ A coyote is none of those, so Title 23 does not prohibit poisoning one. That is authority for “this rule does not cover it,” not authority for “yes.”

What actually governs is pesticide law. The M-44 sodium cyanide device is a restricted-use pesticide: the Wyoming Department of Agriculture is the sole distributor in the state, only certified applicators licensed by the Department may buy or place them, and certification requires an approved training school with periodic refreshers.¹⁸ The devices carry EPA use restrictions on top. In practice M-44s in Wyoming are placed by USDA Wildlife Services and county predator board employees, not by hunters, and the Department does not permit general public use on BLM ground.¹⁸

If you have a livestock depredation problem, the route is your county predator board, not a bait station.

Are there protected areas or additional local restrictions in Wyoming?

Yes. National Parks — Yellowstone and Grand Teton — are closed to hunting outright. The Wind River Reservation is tribal jurisdiction; state rules do not apply and you need tribal permission. Municipal discharge ordinances govern in and near towns. And the public-road prohibition effectively closes a corridor along every road in the state.¹²

The one Wyoming-specific hazard is wolves. Outside the Wolf Trophy Game Management Area in the state’s north-west, gray wolves are designated predatory animals and may be taken without a license, like a coyote.¹⁹ Inside the WTGMA — and inside the Seasonal WTGMA from 15 October to the last day of February — they are trophy game animals and killing one without a license is a serious offence.¹⁹ A wolf at 300 yards in poor light looks like a big coyote to people who have never seen one. Know which side of that boundary you are standing on, and if you are near it, be certain before you shoot — the three areas, and why the seasonal one collides with Wyoming’s best coyote month, are set out at how to tell a coyote from a wolf.

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

Yes, and Wyoming is the clearest “yes” of any state, for the same structural reason that answers half this page.

There is no radio rule to clear. Chapter 2, the General Hunting Regulation, carries no restriction on two-way radios, cell phones or electronic communication in the taking of wildlife, and nothing in Title 23 supplies one.

And even if there were, it could not reach a coyote. The Game and Fish Commission’s regulatory authority is granted over wildlife “except predatory animals”,³ and a coyote is first on the statutory predatory animal list. See the classification. A methods rule made by the Commission has no coyote to attach to.

Compare Montana, where the rule exists and is scoped to game animals, and Alaska, where it exists and does reach coyotes.

After the shot: pelts, bounties & contests in Wyoming

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

No tag, no seal, no inspection, no check-in. Nothing in Title 23 requires a coyote carcass or pelt to be tagged or presented, and there is no restriction on taking one out of state. Your obligation is at the far end — the receiving state’s import rules.

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

You can sell your own, and you do not need a license to do it. Wyoming’s fur dealer license attaches to the business of dealing:

Any person who desires to engage in the business of buying, collecting, selling, or shipping raw furs other than hides from cloven hoof big game animals shall apply for and pay to the department the proper fee for a resident fur dealer’s license or a nonresident fur dealer’s license prior to commencing the business.²⁰

Selling the coyotes you shot to a buyer is not engaging in that business; buying pelts from other people to resell is. The fees, if you cross that line, are $52 resident and $283 non-resident.²¹

Is there a coyote bounty program in Wyoming?

Effectively yes — and Wyoming runs the largest predator control program of any state on this site. It is not a statewide bounty you claim at a Game and Fish office; it is a county system, and it is worth understanding because it also explains why Wyoming’s rules are as permissive as they are.

Each county has a predatory animal board, funded by a $1-per-head fee livestock producers pay when they sell — about $1.2 million a year statewide, retained by the counties — and topped up by the state Animal Damage Management Board, which allocated nearly $4.8 million for fiscal year 2026–27.²² Most of that effort goes to coyotes. Big Horn County alone reported killing 483 coyotes in fiscal 2025; Fremont County contractors and bounty hunters took roughly a thousand in a single winter.²²

Several county boards run seasonal bounty programs open to the public, typically over the winter and closing when the money runs out. Terms, rates and eligibility differ county by county and change every year, and no one publishes a statewide list. Ring your county predator board before you hunt, not after — most require registration in advance and proof of where the animal was taken.

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

Yes to both. Wyoming has not banned predator hunting contests, and nothing in the seven excepted statutory sections touches competitive events.¹ Tournaments run through the winter, and given the state funds coyote reduction at nearly five million dollars a year, it is an unlikely candidate to ban them.

Wyoming, Utah and Idaho are now the only western states on this site where contests remain lawful — Colorado, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Nevada have all closed them.

Note that individual contests set stricter rules than the state does — several Wyoming tournaments bar thermal, night vision and artificial light entirely. Read the tournament rules as well as the statute.

Coyotes in Wyoming

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

Yes, in every county and every habitat — sagebrush basins, the high plains, irrigated river bottoms, foothills and up into the timber. Wyoming publishes no population estimate, and because there is no license, no tag and no harvest survey, the state has no harvest figure either.

The only hard numbers are the control program’s: a $4.8 million annual budget, hundreds to a thousand animals taken per county per year by contractors alone.²² Wyoming has more coyotes than people in several counties, and it is the least crowded good coyote country in the Lower 48.

Are Wyoming coyotes dangerous to people or pets?

To people, very rarely. To sheep, calves and unattended dogs they are the single biggest predation problem in the state, which is the whole reason the county predator boards exist.²²

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

Breeding runs through February, with pups on the ground from April. February is Wyoming’s best month by a distance — pairs are territorial and answer aggressively, pelts are prime, and it falls inside the public-land thermal window that closes on 1 September.⁹

When are coyotes most active in Wyoming?

First and last light year-round, with heavy night movement in open country. For the full breakdown of season, weather and moon phase, see when to hunt coyotes.

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

Wyoming inverts this question, and it is the only state on this site that does. Everywhere else — Oregon, Washington, California, Montana, Idaho — shooting a wolf while coyote hunting is an offence wherever you were standing. In Wyoming it depends entirely on where you were standing, because the wolf carries two different legal identities in the same state:¹⁹

Look hard at that third row, because it lines up badly with the rest of this page. February is Wyoming’s best coyote month — pairs territorial, pelts prime, answering hard. The Seasonal WTGMA is trophy-game country for the whole of it. The one time of year you most want to be calling western Wyoming is the one time of year a mistake there is prosecutable.

WGFD publishes no coyote-versus-wolf comparison, which is consistent with a state that treats the animal as vermin over most of its area. WGFD gives only the population: “The gray wolf population in Wyoming usually exceeds 300 wolves annually, including around 100 wolves in Yellowstone National Park.”²³ For the identification itself, the neighbouring agencies describe the same animals — Montana’s comparison and stride-length chart is the closest fit for Wyoming country and snow.

The short version everyone agrees on: a wolf is roughly twice a coyote’s weight, has a broad blocky snout and short round ears where a coyote has a narrow pointed snout and tall pointed ears, and leaves a paw print about twice the size.

So the Wyoming discipline is a map discipline. Know which of the three areas you are in before you set up, and if you are near a WTGMA boundary — or inside the seasonal area between 15 October and the end of February — treat every large canid as a trophy game animal until you are certain it is not.

What’s changing in Wyoming

• 2023 — HB0104 opened public and state land to night hunting with light and thermal. Before it, predatory animals could be taken with artificial light only by predator control officers and on private land; the amendment added a third route for any person on public or state land, subject to Commission limits.^{10 11}
• 16 April 2024 — the Commission set those limits, adding Section 21 to Chapter 2: the infrared strobe beacon requirement, and the 1 September to 31 December public-land closure. Both are still in the current chapter, dated 22 April 2026.⁹
• 18 March 2025 — corner crossing was held lawful by the Tenth Circuit in Iron Bar Holdings, LLC v. Cape, and the Supreme Court declined the appeal on 20 October 2025, settling it for Wyoming and five neighbouring states.¹⁷
• 19 May 2026 — the Animal Damage Management Board allocated nearly $4.8 million for 2026–27, a record, against county boards reporting rising costs and rising demand.²²
• 2023 — SF0056 defined hunting trespass as requiring “physically touching or driving on the surface” of private property, which is the state-law counterpart to the corner-crossing ruling.^{12 10}

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 Wyoming

Wyoming is the most permissive coyote state in the West and the one where the few rules that exist are the easiest to break by accident.

No license, no season, no limit, no hours, no caliber restriction, no magazine limit, suppressors fine, drones fine, thermal fine, contests fine, vehicles fine. Then a handful of hard edges, all of them in one statutory list.

Four things to get right:

Hunter safety, if you were born after 1965. There is no license purchase to prompt you, and the requirement covers any wildlife taken with a firearm off your own family’s land.

Written permission for private land at night — two separate statutes ask for it, and the private-land light route is written as property protection.

The IR strobe and the four-month closure on public land. Thermal on public ground runs 1 January to 31 August, and you must be visible at 100 yards in every direction while you do it.

Know where the wolf line is. North-west of the Wolf Trophy Game Management Area boundary, a wolf is a licensed trophy game animal, and it will not look like one down a scope at dusk.

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

No, not without a Game and Fish permit that is very unlikely to be granted. Wyoming requires a Department permit before importing, possessing, confining or transporting any live wildlife, with exemptions only for ordinary domestic pets; coyotes are not among them, and applications are decided case by case.²⁴ Contact your local game warden before assuming any exception applies.

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