Coyote Hunting New Brunswick, Laws, Regulations, Season, & License Info

Classification and licence

What is the classification of coyotes in New Brunswick?

A fur bearing animal, by name, in the statute. The Fish and Wildlife Act defines the term rather than leaving it to a booklet:

“‘fur bearing animal’ means fox, beaver, mink, otter, fisher, marten, muskrat, skunk, raccoon, weasel, bobcat, lynx, coyote, squirrel and varying hare.”¹

Hold on to that word. Two of the sharpest answers on this page — dogs and trapping — are decided by it and by nothing else.

Is a hunting licence required to hunt coyotes in New Brunswick?

Yes, and New Brunswick does not sell a coyote licence. It sells five licences that happen to include the coyote, and each one opens a different part of the year. That is the whole structure of this page.

Every one of those says no limit on coyote.^{2 3}

So the cheapest coyote hunting in Canada is the New Brunswick Varmint Licence at $14, and it is also the only one that opens the spring and summer. If you want both halves of the year, the province sells the pair together: the Resident Small Game Bundle is the Bird and Small Game licence at full price plus the Varmint licence at 25% off, $30.75 for the two.⁴

The prices above are resident prices. A non-resident pays more and — much more importantly — cannot hunt alone at all. See what a non-resident needs.

Season, by licence

What is the season for coyote hunting in New Brunswick?

There is no single answer, because the season is a property of your licence rather than of the animal. Put the table above end to end and the coyote year looks like this:

• 2 March – 19 September — Varmint licence
• 1 October – 27 February — Bird and Small Game, or Deer and Game Bird, or Fur Harvester
• 20 April – 30 June and 1 October – 22 November — Bear licence, on top of either

That is close to year-round coverage, and it is the reason New Brunswick is often described that way. But read the two ends. On the face of the 2026–2027 tables, no licence opens coyote between 20 and 30 September, and the Varmint licence itself expires on 19 September. If you plan to hunt that last week of September, ring DNR and confirm before you go, because the summary’s licence tables are where the dates actually live.

This is the Alaska pattern, moved from the methods to the calendar. In Alaska the question is which licence you hold, because two rulebooks disagree about light and optics. In New Brunswick the question is which licence you hold, because that is what decides whether the season is open at all.

What is the bag limit for coyotes in New Brunswick?

None, on every licence that permits one. Every table prints “No limit” against the coyote.^{2 3}

Can you hunt coyotes during deer season?

Yes. The Deer and Game Bird licence lists the coyote among the species it permits, over exactly the period that contains the deer seasons.³ The practical constraints are the shared ones — hunter orange from 1 September to 31 December, and the closed Sundays below.

Non-residents

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in New Brunswick?

Yes — but never alone. New Brunswick has the most restrictive non-resident rule in this series, and it is one flat sentence with no species attached to it:

“All non-resident hunters must hunt with a licensed guide.”⁵

There is no small game exemption, no coyote exemption and no landowner exemption in that sentence. Alberta and Manitoba require a guide or a host for a coyote; New Brunswick requires one for a squirrel. It goes further still: a non-resident who holds a New Brunswick Class I Professional Guide Licence must themselves be accompanied by a guide while hunting, because “guiding and hunting are different activities and each has its own requirements.”⁵

Two kinds of guide exist, and the difference matters to your budget:

• Class 1 (Professional) Guide — takes a fee, may accompany up to three clients
• Licence to Accompany (Guide II) — one person at a time, not for a fee or reward, and may hunt while guiding if properly licensed

That second one is the door most American coyote hunters will actually use: a New Brunswick friend with the right licence can accompany you, and cannot charge you for it.⁵

On top of the guide, a visitor needs the licence itself — $32 for the Varmint licence, $82 for Bird and Small Game — plus a Hunter Education certificate if aged 12 to 15, and the federal firearm declaration at the border. The provincial paperwork is cheap; the guide is the cost.

The federal side — the declaration, the fee, and what a past conviction does at the border — is on the Canada regulations index.

Night, lights and Sundays

Can you hunt coyotes at night in New Brunswick?

No, and it is one of the province’s named major violations — the same list that contains hunting in the closed season and hunting while impaired.⁶

The hours rule is the familiar one with an unfamiliar tail:

“Hunting is permitted only during the period from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset (exception: night raccoon hunting under special permit). Firearms (guns, bows, crossbows) must be cased at all other times.”⁷

Note what is cased. Not just rifles — bows and crossbows too, at all other times. As in Ontario, that is a possession rule rather than a hunting rule, and it is the one people break on the drive home. Night hunting has no route in here.

Can you use artificial lights?

No, and New Brunswick’s ban is the broadest on the site because it is not tied to darkness or to intent. Section 33(1) of the Act:

“Every person commits an offence who … hunts wildlife by means of or with the assistance of a light or lights, with or without the intent then or subsequently to capture, kill or wound wildlife.”⁸

Read the last clause twice. Most jurisdictions ban hunting with a light, which leaves an argument about what you were doing. New Brunswick removed the argument: assistance from a light is the offence whether or not you meant to shoot anything.

The only way past it is a ministerial permit under section 33(2), which can authorize activity “at any time of the day or night, during the open or the closed season or by means of or with the assistance of a light or lights.”⁸ That is a permit regime for specific purposes, not something a coyote hunter applies for as a matter of course.

Can you use night vision or thermal?

Neither the summary nor the Act names night vision, thermal or infrared. There is no lawful night hunt for the optic to serve, and section 33 closes the light question in daylight as well. Do not read that silence as permission — ring DNR if you need a definitive answer for daytime use.

Can you hunt coyotes on Sunday in New Brunswick?

Usually not, and this catches visitors more than any other rule here.

“Hunting is prohibited on all Sundays except those that fall between Oct. 14 and Dec. 31, inclusive, in any year.”⁹

So of the coyote year, roughly eleven Sundays are open and the other forty-one are not. A hunter on the Varmint licence — the whole March-to-September half — never gets a legal Sunday at all.

There is one narrow exception, and it belongs to trappers rather than hunters: a fur harvester may carry a .22 rimfire on the Sundays outside the Sunday hunting period, solely “to dispatch live-caught non-aquatic furbearers,” with the firearm cased in transit and re-cased immediately after use.¹⁰ It is a licence to finish an animal already in a trap, not a licence to hunt.

Firearms

What firearms are allowed for coyote hunting in New Brunswick?

The province writes its weapon list per licence, and the coyote sits in the permissive one:

“Varmint and Bird and Small Game hunters using firearms or bows must use: a rim-fire or centre-fire rifle; a muzzle-loading firearm; a shotgun; a bow or crossbow; or an air gun or pellet gun.”¹¹

No calibre floor, no calibre ceiling, no magazine limit beyond federal law, and — unlike Québec, which bans the air rifle on a coyote while allowing it on a grouse — an air gun is on the list. A .22 LR is equally fine. What to carry is your call.

How far do you have to be from a building or a road?

New Brunswick sets three distances by weapon rather than one distance for everybody:¹²

Buckshot counts as neither ball nor slug, so it may be discharged between 200 and 400 metres.¹²

And separately: it is illegal to discharge any firearm from or across the paved portion of a designated road, or within 10 metres of it — and designated roads “include almost all named or numbered public roads in New Brunswick.”¹² A loaded firearm in or on any vehicle, ATVs and snowmobiles included, is unlawful whether or not it is moving.

Are suppressors allowed?

No. Suppressors are prohibited devices under Canada’s Criminal Code, everywhere in the country. No provincial licence changes it, and the answer is the same on all thirteen Canadian pages.

Calls, bait and dogs

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in New Brunswick?

Yes — and New Brunswick reaches that answer by a route none of the other six provinces uses: there is no prohibition to scope.

The Fish and Wildlife Act enumerates prohibited methods in sections 32 and 33 — poison, traps and snares for big game, night, lights, dogs — and calls appear in none of them. Neither the Hunting Regulation nor the 2026–2027 summary mentions recorded, electronic or amplified calls anywhere.

That makes seven provinces and seven mechanisms. British Columbia names the coyote as an exception to a general ban. Alberta names it and lists the permitted sounds. Saskatchewan scopes the ban to waterfowl. Manitoba scopes it to big game. Ontario scopes it to wild turkey. Québec authorizes the device outright. New Brunswick never legislated the question.

One caution, because this answer rests on absence rather than on a sentence. A prohibition that does not exist cannot be broken, and New Brunswick’s prohibited-methods sections are written as a closed list — but if you are betting a charge on it, ring DNR and get it confirmed. The best coyote call covers what to run either way.

Are decoys and bait allowed?

Neither is legislated for the coyote. The only baiting rules in the summary are written for bear — bait registration, container removal, and the dated baiting period — and nothing extends them to a furbearer.¹³

Do not read that silence as permission either. It means the question is unanswered, not answered yes.

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in New Brunswick?

No — and this is the answer most likely to be got wrong, because it turns entirely on the word “furbearer.”

“Every person commits an offence who … hunts a bear, moose, deer or fur bearing animal by means of, or with the assistance of, a dog or when accompanied by a dog.”⁸

The coyote is a fur bearing animal by the Act’s own definition, so it is inside that prohibition. And note the width of it: not merely using a dog, but being accompanied by one. A dog in the truck that follows you out is inside the sentence.

Section 33(2) does let the Minister permit dog use for any wildlife “except bear, moose or deer,” so a coyote hound permit is not impossible in principle. But DNR does not offer one. The published Hound Hunting and Training seasons cover four species, and the coyote is not among them:¹⁴

The fox is on that list and the coyote is not, which is the clearest possible signal that the omission is deliberate rather than an oversight. Running hounds on New Brunswick coyotes is not a grey area.

Trapping and snaring

Is it legal to trap or snare coyotes in New Brunswick?

Yes, on a Fur Harvester’s Licence, and the seasons are set by Wildlife Management Zone:¹⁵

Note “restraint only.” Body-gripping killing traps are prohibited for coyote and fox, and a leghold trap may not be used on a coyote “unless the trap has been modified to improve humaneness.”¹⁶ Those two rules are specific to the canids and they are the ones an American trapper is most likely to arrive without.

The rest of the framework, in brief:¹⁶

• No trap or snare within 300 m of a dwelling not your own, a school, playground, athletic field, waste disposal site or place of business — unless it is a water-based set
• Restraining sets checked at least every 48 hours
• Snare wire over 0.75 mm needs a locking device, and is only permitted above water from 7 November in WMZs 1–12 and 14 November in WMZs 13–26
• Poison is prohibited outright for catching or killing furbearers
• Trapper education is compulsory for anyone born on or after 1 January 1981 and for all first-time trappers — Firearms Safety, Hunter Education and the Atlantic Provinces Trapper Education course, with the other Atlantic provinces' certificates accepted

Is it legal to poison coyotes?

No. Killing or attempting to kill any wildlife by the use of poison is an offence under section 32(1)(e) of the Act, and the fur harvesting rules repeat the prohibition.^{8 16}

After the shot

Do you have to wear hunter orange?

Yes, from 1 September to 31 December, and New Brunswick asks for more than most:

“From Sept. 1 to Dec. 31, the following people must wear a solid or camouflage fluorescent hunter orange jacket or vest and a hat of solid fluorescent hunter orange: hunters, fur harvesters carrying a firearm, and licensed guides (while guiding hunters).”¹⁷

Both garments, visible from all directions, and camouflage orange only counts if the pattern is at least 50% orange. The exemptions are for waterfowl hunters and for archery deer hunters once they are in a stand or blind — neither of which helps a coyote hunter.

Outside those four months there is no orange requirement, which means the Varmint licence’s spring half runs bare and its September tail does not.

What if a coyote is causing damage on private land?

You can deal with it without a hunting licence, and the Act says so directly. Section 34(4) lets the owner or occupant of private land — or a person they designate who would be entitled to hold a licence — hunt, trap, snare, remove or relocate any of a listed group of species on that land where necessary to prevent damage to private property or injury to owners or occupants. “Eastern coyote” is on the list.¹⁸

Two details in that sentence are easy to skip:

• Hunting under it is “on any day and at any time, except during the night.” The night ban survives the exemption. Trapping, snaring, removal and relocation are not time-limited in the same words.
• It is a private-land power. Crown land and provincially administered land are excluded from the Act’s definition of private land for this purpose.

Where that is not enough, section 34(6) lets anyone apply to the Minister in writing for authorization. And a landowner who would rather not do it personally can hire a licensed Nuisance Wildlife Control Operator, who is authorized to capture and destroy problem coyotes; DNR publishes the list by region.¹⁹

Can you sell a pelt or take one home?

Selling raw fur runs through the fur harvesting system rather than the hunting one, so a hunter intending to sell should hold a Fur Harvester’s Licence. Coyote is not CITES-listed, so no federal export permit attaches to the pelt itself at the border — but declare it, and check the fur rules with DNR before you plan on selling one.

Coyotes in New Brunswick

Are there coyotes in New Brunswick, and how many?

Between 10,000 and 15,000 — and New Brunswick is the first jurisdiction in this Canadian series to publish an actual number rather than a trend.

“The Eastern coyote (Canis latrans) has inhabited New Brunswick for more than 50 years and has adapted well to rural and urban environments. Coyote populations in New Brunswick fluctuate, with an estimated range of 10,000 to 15,000 animals depending on factors such as food supply, disease and social structure.”¹⁹

They arrived in the 1970s, they are established province-wide, and the province describes them as most active at dusk, dawn and night, capable of more than 60 km/h, and more visible in winter — when snow and bare cover push them onto roads and packed trails. That last detail is a hunting observation as much as a public safety one. When to hunt covers how to use it.

When is mating season, and when do pups arrive?

Breeding runs January to March, with an average litter of six pups born two months later — so late March into May. Young are weaned at six weeks and may disperse in the autumn or winter. Coyotes can breed in their first year but usually begin in their second, and pairs may bond for several years.¹⁹

Set that against the licences: the Varmint licence opens 2 March, in the middle of breeding and ahead of whelping.

Are New Brunswick coyotes dangerous?

The province’s own answer is that the risk is very low, and it says so with a number attached to the timeframe: “coyotes have been in New Brunswick for more than 50 years, yet only a few incidents have been recorded.”¹⁹

An adult runs 14 to 20 kg — 30 to 45 pounds — and stands 50 to 60 cm at the shoulder. DNR’s advice on an encounter is to stand your ground: never approach or touch one, always leave it an escape route, back away without turning or running, and if it approaches, respond aggressively — arms, shouting, thrown objects, eye contact. And do not let a dog chase one.¹⁹

The trapping section adds the practical health note: wear gloves handling fur, cook meat well done, keep a clean work area.¹⁶