Coyote Hunting in Mexico — Laws, Seasons, Permits & the Firearm Problem

The short answer

Can an American hunt coyotes in Mexico?

Yes, in most of the country — but never on your own, never at night, and not with the rifle you would reach for at home.

Three federal rules decide almost everything on this page, and none of them is what a US hunter expects:

1. A non-resident must contract a registered service provider, who has to stay with you for the entire expedition. There is no non-resident licence that buys you out of it.¹
2. Night hunting is prohibited across all thirty-two states, by statute, with no state opt-out and no permit that lifts it.²
3. Your rifle is the hard part. The calibres an American would bring for coyotes are reserved to the armed forces by default, and reach a hunter only through a permit issued by the army.³

What is not federal is the season. Mexico publishes a hunting calendar organized state by state, and the coyote season is different in nearly every one — the full table is below.

If you are reading this because you are already booked on a Coues deer, mule deer or dove hunt, you are the reader this page is written for. Coyotes in Mexico are usually an incidental animal taken on somebody else’s ground, and the paperwork that matters is your outfitter’s.

A note on the quotes. Mexican wildlife law is published only in Spanish, and a translation is an interpretation. So every rule below is quoted in the original and then given in English underneath. Where a Spanish term has no clean English equivalent — UMA, cintillo, tasa de aprovechamiento — it is glossed the first time and then used plainly.

Why you cannot hunt alone

Do I need a guide to hunt in Mexico?

Yes, and “guide” understates it. The Ley General de Vida Silvestre — the General Wildlife Law — is explicit:

“Los residentes en el extranjero que deseen realizar este tipo de aprovechamiento de vida silvestre, deberán contratar a un prestador de servicios de aprovechamiento registrado, quien fungirá para estos efectos como responsable para la conservación de la vida silvestre y su hábitat.”⁴

In English: Foreign residents wishing to carry out this kind of wildlife use must contract a registered service provider, who acts for these purposes as the person responsible for the conservation of wildlife and its habitat.

The same article settles who counts as a provider — “los titulares de las unidades de manejo para la conservación de vida silvestre se considerarán prestadores de servicios registrados”, meaning the holders of wildlife management units shall be considered registered service providers. If you are hunting a registered property, its holder already qualifies.

The Reglamento — the regulation that implements the law — then closes the loophole a US hunter would go looking for. Signing a contract and hunting the property yourself is not enough:

“Los cazadores residentes en el extranjero deberán contratar para la expedición a un prestador de servicios para el aprovechamiento vía caza deportiva. En este caso, el prestador de servicios, sus trabajadores o representantes legales deberán acompañar al cazador durante toda la expedición.”¹

In English: Hunters resident abroad must contract a service provider for the expedition. In this case, the service provider, their employees or legal representatives must accompany the hunter throughout the entire expedition.

Read that last clause literally. Someone from the outfit is with you the whole time — not checked in with, not on call. Accompanying.

What is a UMA?

A registered property with an approved management plan, and it is where legal hunting happens. The full name is Unidad de Manejo para la Conservación de la Vida Silvestre — Wildlife Conservation Management Unit. The landowner registers the property with SEMARNAT, files a management plan, and receives an authorized tasa de aprovechamiento: a harvest rate saying how many of which species may be taken there.⁵

Three consequences follow, and they are the ones that catch people out:

• There is no public-land coyote hunt. Legal take requires the consent of the owner or lawful possessor of the property, and an authorized rate for that species on that property.⁶
• The species has to be on that property’s rate. A ranch authorized for whitetail is not thereby authorized for coyote.
• You cannot hunt the property line. Management plans must exclude a strip one hundred metres wide measured inward from the perimeter, unless the neighbouring holders have expressly agreed otherwise.⁷

The season, state by state

When is coyote season in Mexico?

It depends on the state — and then on the property. This is the answer most sources get wrong, so the order of operations is worth being precise about.

SEMARNAT publishes an annual Calendario de Épocas Hábiles — a calendar of open seasons — under article 94 of the Act. The 2026–2027 edition runs to thirty state sections, and the coyote appears in twenty-five of them.⁸

But the calendar is not the season. The Reglamento is unusually blunt about its own status:

“En los casos en que, con base en el artículo 94 de la Ley, hayan sido publicadas épocas hábiles, éstas servirán únicamente como referencia a los responsables técnicos de las UMA para que ellos, a su vez, propongan las temporalidades más adecuadas en las UMA a su cargo… Los responsables técnicos podrán proponer temporalidades distintas a las publicadas.”⁹

In English: Where open seasons have been published under article 94 of the Act, these serve only as a reference for the technical officers of the UMAs, so that they in turn may propose the most appropriate periods for the UMAs in their charge… The technical officers may propose periods different from those published.

So the table below is the federal reference. The dates that bind you are the ones in your UMA’s authorization, which may be narrower, or simply different. Ask the outfitter for the oficio de autorización — the authorization letter — and read the dates printed on it.

One more thing about the table. The calendar prints both a formula (“Tercer viernes de octubre” — third Friday of October) and a resolved date, and the formula is what governs. Next season’s dates move; the rule does not.

Baja California opens three months before Sonora, the widest gap in the table, and worth knowing if you are driving down from San Diego. Sinaloa runs five and a half months; Chihuahua runs two.

Which states have no coyote season?

Seven, for two different reasons. Colima, Morelos, Quintana Roo, Tlaxcala and Yucatán all have a 2026–2027 mammal calendar — Yucatán’s runs to tepezcuintle, temazate and collared peccary — and none of them lists the coyote. Chiapas and Ciudad de México have no calendar section at all.⁸

Yucatán is the interesting omission. Coyotes only reached the peninsula in the modern era and are established there now, so the absence is a choice about what may be taken, not a statement that there is nothing to take.

How many can you shoot?

What is the bag limit for coyotes in Mexico?

However many your outfitter holds tags for — which is very often more than one.

The calendar prints a límite de posesión of 1 against every coyote row in all twenty-five states.⁸ Read on its own, that looks like one coyote and go home. It is a reference figure, and it is not the number that governs where you are standing.

The article that makes the seasons advisory does the same thing to the limits. After telling UMA technical officers they may propose their own dates, the Reglamento adds:

“Al evaluar los planes de manejo o al otorgar las autorizaciones correspondientes, la Secretaría podrá dar a conocer límites de posesión por especie.”⁹

In English: When evaluating management plans or granting the corresponding authorizations, the Secretariat may set possession limits by species.

So the limits are set where the seasons are set — on the authorization, not in the calendar. What actually bounds you is the property’s tasa de aprovechamiento, the authorized harvest rate for that species on that ground, and the number of tags the holder has drawn against it. A property authorized for forty coyotes can lawfully produce forty coyotes.

The practical test is the tags, not the table. Ask the outfitter how many coyote cintillos they hold. That number is your real limit, and unlike the calendar it is specific to where you are standing.

Two guardrails worth knowing. Taking animals beyond the authorization is not a technicality — the fees law provides that the charge is collected anyway on any animal taken in excess of the authorization or without one, independently of whatever penalties follow.¹⁰ And the federal prohibitions in the methods section apply no matter how many tags exist.

The permit chain

What permits do I need to hunt coyotes in Mexico?

Four documents, and only one of them is yours to obtain. PROFEPA — the federal environmental enforcement agency — checks three of them at the truck: “licencias de caza, contratos y cintillos de cobro cinegéticos”, meaning hunting licences, contracts and hunting tags.¹¹

How do I get a Mexican hunting licence?

Apply to SEMARNAT at least fifteen working days before the season opens. Licences are annual or indefinite. An annual application states your nationality, immigration status and the period requested, gives an address in Mexico, and attaches a copy of your passport if you are foreign. SEMARNAT issues within twenty working days.¹²

An indefinite licence needs one thing more — proof you passed SEMARNAT’s evaluation, or a certificate showing you completed a curso de caza responsable, a responsible-hunting course, from a recognized institution.¹³

And note what the licence is not. The Reglamento says so directly: “Las licencias de caza en ningún caso autorizarán por sí mismas la portación de armas” — hunting licences shall in no case, by themselves, authorize the carrying of firearms.¹⁴ That is a separate regime, run by a different ministry, and it is the firearms section.

What is a cintillo, and who gets it?

The tag that proves the animal was legally taken, and the outfitter obtains it, not you. Cintillo de cobro cinegético translates roughly as “hunting charge band” — a numbered marker fixed to the animal. Under article 51 of the Act, legal origin is demonstrated by a mark showing the animal was the subject of sustainable use within an authorized rate.¹⁵

One tag, one animal. That is why the tag count is the real bag limit, and why the cost of a Mexican coyote scales with how many you shoot.

What it costs

What are the government fees?

Small, and not where the money goes. The Ley Federal de Derechos — the Federal Fees Law — sets these directly:¹⁶

At recent exchange rates the tag is roughly US$20–25. That is the federal charge for the right to take one coyote.

If you have been quoted something like $150 a coyote, that is the outfitter’s price, not the government’s. Nothing on this page sets what an outfit may charge for guiding, transport, tag handling and the rest, and there is no federal ceiling on it. Knowing the underlying fee is $441 pesos is still useful: it tells you which part of the invoice is a pass-through and which part is the service.

There is a separate schedule for federal land, and coyotes are not likely to touch it. Article 238 charges a per-animal rate for extractive use on federal properties and federal zones — $763,794.61 for a desert bighorn, $28,288.66 for a puma, and $8,486.60 for “zorra gris y otros pequeños mamíferos” — grey fox and other small mammals, which is the bracket a coyote would fall into.¹⁰ Because hunting runs through registered private properties, most hunters never meet this schedule. Ask if you are ever offered a hunt on federal ground.

Firearms — the real barrier

Can I bring my rifle to Mexico?

Only under a permit issued by the Mexican army, applied for through your outfitter — and the calibres you would expect to use are restricted.

Start with the restriction, because it surprises people. The Ley Federal de Armas de Fuego y Explosivos — the Federal Firearms and Explosives Law — as reformed on 29 May 2025, reserves to the armed forces:

“Fusiles, rifles, mosquetones, carabinas y tercerolas en calibre .223”, 5.45 mm, 5.7 x 28 mm, 5.56 mm, 7 mm, 7.62 mm, .30” y .50” (12.7 mm), similares y superiores en todos sus modelos.”³

In English: Rifles, carbines and short rifles in calibre .223”, 5.45 mm, 5.7 x 28 mm, 5.56 mm, 7 mm, 7.62 mm, .30” and .50” (12.7 mm), and similar and larger, in all their models.

That is most of an American coyote rack — .223, .308, .30-06 — sitting on the reserved list by default.

The way through is article 19, which lets the ministry authorize hunters holding the required permits to possess, transport and use:

“…el rifle de repetición o funcionamiento semiautomático, no convertible en automático de calibre deportivo .223”, .308”, .270”, .243” y demás que sean aplicables a esta actividad lúdica, siempre y cuando se encuentren debidamente registradas en un club o asociación de caza y tiro.”¹⁷

In English: …repeating or semi-automatic rifles, not convertible to automatic, in the sporting calibres .223”, .308”, .270”, .243” and others applicable to this recreational activity, provided they are duly registered with a hunting and shooting club or association.

So the sporting calibres are reachable — through a permission, conditioned on club or association registration, and decided case by case rather than granted outright by the statute.

Rimfire is the uncomplicated end. Article 10 lists .22 rimfire pistols, revolvers and rifles among the arms a registered shooter or hunter may be authorized for, along with shotguns in all gauges except barrels under 635 mm or gauges above 12.¹⁸

What about the temporary import permit?

Article 59 is the hook, and the outfitter pulls it.

“Las importaciones y exportaciones temporales de armas y municiones de turistas cinegéticos y deportistas de tiro, deberán estar amparadas por el permiso extraordinario correspondiente, en el que se señalen las condiciones que se deban cumplir de acuerdo con el Reglamento de esta Ley.”¹⁹

In English: Temporary imports and exports of arms and ammunition by hunting tourists and sport shooters must be covered by the corresponding extraordinary permit, setting out the conditions to be met in accordance with the Regulation of this Law.

The permit has a name and a published requirement list. Mexico’s single-window trade portal calls it the Permiso extraordinario para la importación temporal de armas, municiones y diverso material para actividades deportivas, and says it is granted to individuals from abroad “únicamente para realizar actividades cinegéticas y de competencia de tiro en este país” — solely to carry out hunting and shooting-competition activities in this country. Four requirements:²⁰

1. Registro de identificación cinegética — a hunting identification registration
2. A copy of the invitation from the organizador cinegético or wildlife breeder
3. A copy of the firearm registrations
4. A copy of the organiser’s own registration

Note requirement 2: an invitation, not merely a contract. And the goods declaration wants class, calibre, make, serial number and cartridge count for every firearm, plus the customs posts you will enter and leave by. The weapon leaves when you do.

Your outfitter files this, not you. ANGADI — the diversified-ranchers’ association that handles much of this paperwork — puts it plainly: “El titular de la UMA (propietario del rancho) efectuará a través de ANGADI las gestiones necesarias ante la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (SEDENA)”, meaning the UMA holder (the ranch owner) will carry out the necessary formalities with SEDENA through ANGADI.²¹ Expect a lead time measured in weeks, not days, and check every serial number twice — a transposed digit is a void permit at the border.

What the permit will not cover

This is where the American coyote rig falls apart, and it is worth being blunt about it.

The statute reserves the obvious calibres and then lets SEDENA carve out .223, .308, .270 and .243 for club-registered hunters. What outfitters and permit brokers consistently report is that the carve-out is narrower in practice than on paper: .223 and 5.56 are the hardest to get through, .22 rimfire is generally refused for import, and semi-automatic and AR-pattern rifles are refused outright. The workable list they describe is a bolt-action rifle from about .243 to .30 calibre — .243, .270, 7mm-08, .30-06 — which is to say a deer rifle.

Optics and accessories are the other half. Suppressors are prohibited, and so are night-vision, thermal, holographic and laser sights, along with anything that looks military or could be converted to automatic fire. A thermal scope is not a grey area at a Mexican customs post.

Put the three rules together — no night hunting, no thermal, no AR — and the entire modern American night-thermal coyote playbook is unavailable in Mexico. Plan a daylight hunt with a bolt gun.

Treat the practical caliber list as the outfitter’s, not the law’s. The statute is quoted above and says what it says; what SEDENA actually grants is a separate question, it varies between brokers, and the only answer that binds is the one on your permit. Confirm your exact rifle and calibre with the outfit before you book anything.

The archery workaround

A bow sidesteps the firearm problem completely, and this is the most useful single fact for anyone who cannot get a rifle permitted. ANGADI states it directly:

“Los cazadores que practiquen la caza deportiva con arco o ballesta no requieren permiso de importación por no considerarse el arco o ballesta como arma de fuego.”²²

In English: Hunters who practise sport hunting with a bow or crossbow do not require an import permit, because a bow or crossbow is not considered a firearm.

You still need the service contract with the UMA holder and the cintillo. One restriction to note: ANGADI says a crossbow may not cross the border with a telescopic sight fitted.

One rule with no exception

Article 10 permits rifles above the listed calibres only for use abroad, on game not found in Mexican fauna — “con permiso especial para su empleo en el extranjero, en cacería de piezas mayores no existentes en la fauna nacional”, meaning with a special permit for their use abroad, hunting large game not present in national fauna.²³ There is no reading of that which licenses a magnum for Mexican coyotes.

Night, calls and methods

Can you hunt coyotes at night in Mexico?

No. Nowhere, in no state, under no permit. Article 95 of the Act prohibits sport hunting:

“b) Desde media hora antes de la puesta de sol, hasta media hora después del amanecer.”²

In English: From half an hour before sunset until half an hour after sunrise.

That is a wider closure than “night” — it takes the last of the evening and the first of the morning with it.

The Reglamento pins down exactly what is prohibited during those hours: “se entenderá por ejercicio de caza deportiva el momento en el que se abata o se intente abatir al ejemplar” — the exercise of sport hunting shall be understood as the moment the specimen is killed or an attempt is made to kill it.²⁴ Being in the field is not the offence. Taking the shot is.

This is the single largest difference between hunting coyotes in Mexico and hunting them in the United States. In Texas the coyote is a nongame animal and the night rules written for game animals never reach it. Cross the river and the ban is federal, categorical, and applies to the whole country. If night work is the trip, it is a US trip.

What else does federal law prohibit?

Article 95 has two more limbs, and they are short:

“a) Mediante venenos, armadas, trampas, redes, armas automáticas o de ráfaga.”

“c) Cuando se trate de crías o hembras visiblemente preñadas.”²⁵

In English: (a) By means of poisons, set-guns, traps, nets, or automatic or burst-fire weapons. (c) Where the animals are young, or females visibly pregnant.

Poisons, set-guns, traps and nets are out, and so is anything firing automatically. So are young animals and visibly pregnant females — a rule with no US analogue on coyotes, and one with real bite on a season running into February and March.

Are electronic calls legal in Mexico?

Federal law does not address them, which is not the same as permission. The Act and its Reglamento between them do not mention calls, decoys, dogs, artificial light or vehicles anywhere. The words simply do not appear.

What fills the gap is the management plan. Article 94 has SEMARNAT determine “los medios y métodos para realizar la caza deportiva” — the means and methods for carrying out sport hunting — when it evaluates management plans and issues authorizations.²⁶ Article 114 of the Reglamento then says the arm you use is “cualquier tipo de arma autorizada en el plan de manejo” — any type of arm authorized in the management plan.²⁷

So the answer for calls, decoys and dogs is the same as the answer for rifles: whatever your UMA’s management plan authorizes. Ask the outfitter, and ask before you pack a call. Calling technique travels; permission does not.

Which states are safe to go to

What does the State Department say about the hunting states?

Mexico is Level 2 overall, but the coyote states are not evenly distributed across the levels — and the two best-known destinations are both Level 3.

The levels below are read from that advisory.²⁸ Cross them against the season table and the picture is uncomfortable:

Three things fall out of that table.

Sonora and Baja California — the two states with any reputation for coyote hunting — are both Level 3, “Reconsider travel.” So is Chihuahua. That does not make a trip impossible; outfitters fly clients into Hermosillo and run ranch-based hunts every season. It does mean the decision is yours to make deliberately rather than by default.

Tamaulipas is Level 4, “Do not travel.” It has a coyote season running 13 November to 21 February, and the most detailed English-language hunter account of coyote hunting in Mexico is set there — from 2006, before the advisory reached its present level. Old trip reports are not current security information.

The quiet answer is the middle of the table. Coahuila, Nuevo León and Durango are Level 2, all three have coyote seasons, and Coahuila and Nuevo León are two of the six states that administer their own UMA paperwork. If security is the deciding factor and you still want the northern desert, that is where to look. Campeche is the only Level 1 state with a coyote season — a long way from the classic destinations, and worth knowing exists.

Re-check before you commit, and treat everything above as a starting point rather than an answer. Advisory levels move, the State Department publishes restrictions by highway and municipality inside a state, and a state-level rating tells you nothing about the specific road you will drive at dusk. Every other fact on this page is a regulation that changes on a published schedule; this one can change on a Tuesday.

What hunters report

Everything above this heading is quoted from law. Nothing below it is.

This section is what hunters say, and it is here because the statutes answer what is permitted and say nothing about what it is like. It is not verifiable the way the rest of this page is, none of it carries a citation pill, and where it conflicts with the law, the law wins.

First-hand accounts are genuinely scarce, and that is itself the finding. There is no neutral, hunter-to-hunter Mexico coyote trip report in any volume online. Searches of the usual forums return outfitter marketing, incidental mentions inside deer-hunt write-ups, or — because of the other meaning of the word in a border context — nothing about the animal at all. What does exist is a handful of forum threads and some branded video.

The one thing every account agrees on is that the coyotes are not call-shy. Hunters describe animals that have rarely or never heard a call and that commit hard, and long-time Predator Masters posters describe days in Sonora and Baja far beyond a normal US day. Weight the specific numbers carefully — the biggest figures come from outfitter copy, and the forum figures are recollections, several of them decades old. The direction of the claim is consistent across promotional and first-hand sources alike; the magnitude is not verifiable.

One widely read account describes night hunting in Tamaulipas. It is a useful trip report and it describes something that is illegal in Mexico. Read it for the terrain and the coyote behaviour, not for the method.

On price. Coyotes are usually thrown in free or unlimited on a Sonora Coues or mule deer hunt, which is why so few people buy a coyote hunt as such. Where predator-specific hunts are marketed at all, they run in the region of several hundred dollars a day, typically February–March after the deer seasons close, with the firearm permit billed separately. Those are marketing figures, not quotes.

One buyer-beware worth naming. At least one operation markets “predator hunting Mexico” for a hunt that takes place on a ranch on the Texas side of the border. Ask which country you will be standing in before you pay a deposit.

And the thing the forums say more than anything else: do not improvise the paperwork. A US Marine was arrested at the Tijuana crossing in March 2014 carrying firearms and several hundred rounds without Mexican permits and spent about seven months in custody. Ranch owners sometimes wave off permit questions on their own land. The legal exposure is the foreign hunter’s, not the rancher’s. Vacuum the truck.

Getting the animal home

Can I bring a coyote back to the United States?

Two governments have to be satisfied, and the Mexican half is the outfitter’s paperwork. Out of Mexico you need the contract and the cintillo — the mark is what proves legal origin under article 51, and it is what an inspector asks for.²⁹

Into the United States, wildlife imports are governed by 50 CFR Part 14, and the declaration is FWS Form 3-177. Wildlife must generally enter through a designated Fish and Wildlife Service port unless you hold a Designated Port Exception Permit, and there are limited exemptions for personal items in accompanying baggage.³⁰

Ring the FWS port you will actually cross at, before you travel, and ask what they want for a personally taken, non-listed mammal from Mexico. The answer depends on the port and on how the animal is prepared, and it is a five-minute call against a confiscation.

Coyotes in Mexico

Are there coyotes in Mexico?

Across nearly all of it, and across more of it than there used to be. Mexico is not the southern edge of the coyote’s range — the animal has pushed through it and into Central America, reaching the Yucatán peninsula, Belize and Panama, an expansion generally attributed to the clearing of tropical forest.

Several subspecies are recognized across the country: C. l. peninsulae down the Baja peninsula, C. l. mearnsi in the northwest, C. l. cagottis through the central plateau and the Gulf slope, and C. l. goldmani in the southeast.

The Yucatán arrival is recent enough to be dated. The first peninsular record was a skull and skin collected in October 1991 near the Dzilam reserve in Panabá, Yucatán, with a second specimen from the same ranch in 1995.

Are Mexican coyotes protected?

No. Every coyote row in the 2026–2027 calendar is marked SC — sin categoría, no risk category under NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010.³¹ The coyote is neither threatened nor specially protected. It is an ordinary game species with a season and a tag.

How do I tell a coyote from a Mexican wolf?

This is the question worth taking seriously in the north, and the best published guidance comes from the US side of the border. New Mexico’s agency puts wolf-versus-coyote identification in its front-of-book highlights and lists shooting a wolf after mistaking it for a coyote among the things that are illegal — the misidentification defence is anticipated and refused. Arizona’s chart is the only one that describes how the animal moves: a coyote “moves with more bounce”, a Mexican wolf “in a stiff, heavy gait”.

Both are set out in full on the New Mexico and Arizona pages, and the cues do not stop at the border.

Anything else worth knowing?

The calendar expires. Everything in the season table is the 2026–2027 edition. When SEMARNAT publishes 2027–2028 the dates move, and the formulas are what carry over.

The fees move too. The peso amounts above are from the Federal Fees Law as it stood on 7 November 2025. That law is amended most years, usually upward.

Every rule here is quoted from the source. English-language writing about hunting in Mexico is mostly outfitter marketing, and it states seasons and permits confidently and without citation. Everything above comes from the statute, the regulation, the fees law, the calendar or the enforcing agency, quoted in Spanish and given in English, and linked.

One thing on this page is not fully verified, and it is named rather than hidden. Sonora publishes its cintillo requirements on a state website that blocks automated access entirely, so the Sonora-specific detail could not be read. The federal rules above are verified and apply; if you are hunting Sonora, ask your outfitter for the state’s current requirement.

A note on how this was checked. The season table was read directly from SEMARNAT’s 2026–2027 Calendario de Épocas Hábiles, and every row machine-checked — each Spanish formula was resolved independently and matched the printed date, twenty-five of twenty-five. The statutory rules come from the Ley General de Vida Silvestre (last reformed 16 July 2025), its Reglamento (9 May 2014), the Ley Federal de Armas de Fuego y Explosivos (29 May 2025) and the Ley Federal de Derechos (7 November 2025), all from the Cámara de Diputados. If SEMARNAT or SEDENA tells you otherwise, they are right and this page is wrong — tell us.