Coyote Hunting Prince Edward Island, Laws, Regulations, Season, & License Info

Classification and licence

What is the classification of coyotes in Prince Edward Island?

Both game and a fur-bearing animal, and the province put that in writing as policy rather than leaving it to be inferred:

“Coyotes will continue to be recognized as game and furbearing animals under the Prince Edward Island Wildlife Conservation Act.”¹

Being in both categories is why PEI sells two $5 licences that will each cover a coyote, and it is why the answers on this page come from the hunting rules rather than from a trapping book.

Is a hunting licence required to hunt coyotes in PEI?

Yes, and it is close to free for an Islander:²

• Resident Game Hunting (18–59) — $5, and no charge for a first-time hunter
• Resident Furbearer, all ages — $5
• Courtesy Resident Game Hunting, 60 and over — no charge
• Wildlife Conservation Fund — $20 for 16–64, $13 for 65 and over, charged once a year with your first fishing, hunting or trapping licence

Fees exclude HST. The conservation fund is the part visitors miss: it is charged once annually on your first licence of any kind, so the real first-licence cost is the licence plus $20, not the licence alone.

The prices above are resident prices, and a non-resident faces a condition that no amount of money removes — see what a non-resident needs.

Season

What is the season for coyote hunting in PEI?

1 October to 31 March, with no bag limit and no possession limit.³

Note what that means alongside the neighbours. Prince Edward Island closes its coyote season for six months a year, from 1 April to 30 September. Nova Scotia, a ferry ride away, is open all 365 days. New Brunswick, across the bridge, sells a licence that covers March to September specifically. PEI is the only one of the three with a hard closed season over the spring and summer, and the red squirrel beside it in the same table has none at all.

The closure lines up with denning — pups are born here in April or May — though the province has never written that as the reason.

Non-residents

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in PEI?

Yes, and this is the most accessible of the three Maritime provinces — but you still cannot hunt alone.

“Non-resident hunters must be accompanied by either a licensed resident hunter or a registered hunting guide while hunting in Prince Edward Island.”⁴

Read the first option carefully, because it is the whole difference. New Brunswick requires a licensed guide. Nova Scotia requires a licensed guide or a resident holding a Special Permit to Guide — a permit your friend has to go and get. Prince Edward Island accepts any licensed resident hunter. No permit, no fee, no application: if you know somebody on the Island with a hunting licence, you have satisfied the rule.

The licences themselves:²

• Non-resident Hunting — $75
• Non-resident 3-day Hunting — $60
• Wildlife Conservation Fund — $20, once annually
• Non-resident Hunting Guide licence — $50, if you are the one guiding

The three-day licence is only $15 less than the full season, so it rarely pays unless you are genuinely passing through.

Residency is not about citizenship. A resident is someone who has lived in the province for six months before applying, or who was born in the province and owns real property here, among other routes.⁴ If you are not one of those, you need the non-resident licence and the accompaniment.

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

The .22 ceiling

What firearms are allowed for coyote hunting in PEI?

This is the answer that defines coyote hunting on the Island, and it will stop most visiting hunters cold. The prohibitions list is blunt:

“No person shall hunt red squirrel, snowshoe hare, raccoon, fox or coyote by use of a. a shotgun loaded with a single bullet; or, b. a rifle larger than .22 calibre.”⁵

A .22 rimfire is the largest rifle you may point at a Prince Edward Island coyote. No .223, no .22-250, no .243, no .204 Ruger — the calibres the rest of this site treats as the default coyote rifles are all unlawful here. And a slug gun is out too: a shotgun loaded with a single bullet is prohibited for the same list of species.

That is the tightest firearm rule for coyote anywhere in the programme, US states included. Ontario caps rifles at .275 calibre in twenty-one counties; Rhode Island legislates a .229 ceiling for part of the year. PEI’s ceiling is .22 calibre, everywhere, all season.

So what do you actually shoot a coyote with here?

A shotgun — and the rules bend to let you load it properly. Two provisions do the work.

The first is a shot-size ceiling with the coyote carved straight out of it:

“while hunting game other than coyote, use or be in possession of any shot of a size larger than a. ‘BB’ in the case of lead shot; or b. Size ‘T’ in the case of non-toxic shot”⁶

Everyone else is capped at BB. The coyote hunter is the exception, which is what makes buckshot lawful for this species and this species alone. Lead shot is also expressly permitted for coyote, where it is banned for waterfowl.⁶

The second is a small permission that exists only for this animal:

“Muzzle loading firearms are permitted for coyote hunting only.”⁷

So the legal PEI coyote battery is a shotgun with heavy shot, a .22 rimfire, a muzzleloader, or a bow. It is a close-range hunt by law rather than by choice, and it makes calling and stand placement matter far more than the rifle does. Plan for shotgun range and you will not be disappointed on arrival.

One more from the same page: the rule against carrying more than one uncased shotgun while hunting does not apply to rifles.⁷

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.

Night, lights and optics

Can you hunt coyotes at night in PEI?

No. Two separate rules close it, and the second is a possession rule that catches people after the hunt is over.

“discharge any firearm in any locality where game is usually found between one-half hour after sunset and one-half hour before sunrise unless authorized by a permit to hunt raccoons at night or for the purposes of dispatching a legally trapped furbearer.”⁸

And from the Wildlife Conservation Act itself, in the list of offences:

“have a firearm that is not cased or broken in his or her possession in the field between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise unless authorized by a permit to hunt at night.”⁹

Note the two different clocks. Shooting stops half an hour after sunset; the gun has to be cased or broken an hour after sunset. That thirty-minute gap is your walk back to the truck, and it is the only thing it is for.

The raccoon-at-night permit is real — PEI issues it, and the province acknowledges that raccoon hunters run dogs and lights after dark.¹⁰ It does not extend to coyotes. Night hunting is not available on the Island.

Can you use lights, night vision or thermal?

There is no lawful night hunt for a coyote for any of them to serve, and neither the summary nor the Act contains a separate light, night-vision or thermal provision aimed at hunters. Do not read that silence as permission — with no legal night hunt, the question does not arise, and the Forests, Fish and Wildlife Division is the place to take it if you need a definitive answer for daytime use.

Calls, bait and dogs

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in PEI?

Yes. As in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the answer rests on the absence of a prohibition rather than on a permission. The Wildlife Conservation Act offence list and the summary’s twenty-six numbered prohibitions between them cover night, vehicles, shot size, snares, baiting waterfowl and lead — and neither mentions recorded, amplified or electronic calls anywhere.

That makes nine provinces and nine routes to the same answer, and all three Maritime provinces reach it by silence. British Columbia names the coyote as an exception. 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, Nova Scotia and PEI never legislated it.

Confirm with the division if you are betting a charge on it — an answer resting on absence is only as good as the search behind it. Given the .22 ceiling, the call is doing more work on this Island than almost anywhere else.

Is baiting allowed?

The only baiting rule in the summary is written for waterfowl — no hunting within 400 metres of an area baited with grain or other food.⁸ Nothing addresses bait for a coyote in either direction.

Do not read that silence as permission. It means the question is unanswered.

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in PEI?

Yes — and hound hunting is an established Island practice rather than a technicality. The province discusses it directly, in the course of warning about something else:

“The use of vehicles such as ATVs and snowmobiles to assist in hunting activities has expanded in recent years, particularly during coyote hunts with hounds. If used properly, these vehicles can be very useful in locating and retrieving hunting dogs and accessing remote areas.”¹¹

So the hounds are lawful and the province expects them. The vehicle is where the trouble is. The same passage draws the line: “the distinction between chasing game and following hunting hounds can be subtle, but hunters are reminded that it is unlawful to use these vehicles to actively pursue or chase game,” and a vehicle judged to be harassing wildlife or part of a party actively pursuing game puts the hunter at legal risk.¹¹

That is the third distinct Maritime answer on dogs in three provinces. New Brunswick prohibits dogs on a coyote outright, because its statute puts the animal inside “fur bearing animal.” Nova Scotia permits it by name in a regulation. Prince Edward Island simply has the practice, described in its own summary as ordinary.

After the shot

Can you take a coyote or its pelt off the Island?

Not without a permit, and this is the rule most likely to catch a visiting hunter at the bridge.

“ship or take out of the province, snowshoe hare, raccoon, fox or coyote without a Game Export Permit. If pelts are held by the hunter longer than 5 days after the close of the open season, a Possession Permit is required.”⁸

An animal you shot legally, on a licence you paid for, still needs a Game Export Permit before it crosses the Confederation Bridge. Coyote is not CITES-listed, so there is no federal permit on the pelt — this is provincial paperwork, and it applies to the whole animal as well as the skin.

Can you sell a pelt?

Only through the trade:

“sell fox, raccoon or coyote pelts to anyone other than a licensed fur dealer or fur auction house representative” is prohibited.⁸

So a private sale to another hunter is an offence. And separately, it is an offence to wilfully allow the flesh of any game suitable for food to be spoiled or destroyed.⁸

What about hunting on private land?

PEI hunters need the occupier’s permission for a long and specific list of ground: lawns, gardens, orchards, commercial berry-growing areas, golf courses, land managed for agricultural crops, tree plantations, Christmas tree management areas, and enclosed premises posted to keep people out or animals in.¹²

Trappers need permission for forest land too, which hunters do not.¹² On an Island where most ground is farmed or wooded and privately held, permission is the first job, not the last.

Coyotes on the Island

Are there coyotes in PEI, and how did they get here?

Yes — and PEI records the moment they arrived more precisely than anywhere else in this series.

“The first coyote caught in Prince Edward Island was snared near Souris in 1983. Coyotes now occur in all Provinces in Canada having reached both Newfoundland (late 1980’s) and Prince Edward Island by crossing Northumberland Strait on the winter ice.”¹

They walked across the sea ice, one animal at a time, and inside twenty years they had filled the province.

Roughly 2,000 animals, and the number has a ceiling built into it. The province concluded that carrying capacity had been reached by 2003, on the reasoning that a coyote pair defends a territory of about 50 square kilometres and Prince Edward Island only has so many of those to give.¹ It is the one jurisdiction on this site small enough that you can do the arithmetic yourself.

That estimate is dated 2003. It is the most recent published figure found, and it should be read as the province’s considered position on the population’s shape rather than as this year’s count.

One knock-on effect worth knowing, because it changes what you will see: coyotes do not tolerate red foxes in their territories, so the Island’s fox population dropped and was pushed into the margins outside coyote ground — which is why PEI foxes are now seen so often around houses and roadsides.¹

When is mating season, and when do pups arrive?

“Coyotes breed from late January to March and a litter of five to seven young is born in an underground den in April or May. The pups leave the den at eight weeks, learn how to hunt through the summer and disperse in the fall.”¹

Lay that over the season and it fits neatly: the season closes 31 March, pups arrive in April or May, and the dispersing young of the year are on the ground when it reopens on 1 October. When to hunt covers what that does to how they respond.

Is there a coyote bounty in PEI?

No — and Prince Edward Island is the only jurisdiction on this site whose government has published its reasons for refusing one.

“There is no practical way of preventing the natural increase in coyotes on Prince Edward Island. History has shown that poisoning, trapping, shooting from snowmobiles and aircraft, hunting with hounds, and bounty incentives, have consistently failed to reduce their numbers.”¹

The policy then cites the neighbours as its evidence. Nova Scotia paid a $50 bounty through the 1980s, and PEI’s read of the result is that it changed nothing: “In spite of the bounty, the coyote population continued to expand at the same rate in Nova Scotia as it had in New Brunswick, practically doubling every year. Bounties paid for coyotes went from $2,250 to $22,100 in four years at which time the Province wisely eliminated the bounty.”¹

What PEI does instead is targeted: the province names trappers and hunters to farmers who have a problem animal, and pushes prevention — predator-proof electric fencing, guard dogs, guard donkeys, calving in barns rather than open fields, and not dumping dead stock in the back field, which the policy calls out as the single surest way to teach a coyote to eat livestock.¹

Are PEI coyotes dangerous?

The province addressed the question head-on when the animal was new and its answer has not changed: documented attacks on children have occurred in western North America, are “extremely rare,” and “are invariably associated with coyotes that have lost their fear of humans as a result of being fed.”¹ Coyotes are described as normally very wary of people. Do not feed them, do not leave food out, and report an animal behaving strangely.

A note on sources. The regulatory answers here are checked against the 2025 PEI Hunting Summary, the newest edition that could be obtained, together with the Wildlife Conservation Act as consolidated to 29 May 2026. The province’s own summary states that “the original act and regulations should be consulted for all purposes of interpreting and applying the law,” and PEI reissues the summary annually. Season dates in that summary are printed without years — 1 October to 31 March — so they do not expire the way a dated table does, but confirm the current edition with the Forests, Fish and Wildlife Division at 902 368-4683 before you travel.