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

Classification and licence

What is the classification of coyotes in Saskatchewan?

Coyote is a furbearing animal — and then it is immediately carved back out of the rule that classification would normally impose.

The Trappers Guide makes it unlawful to “take furbearing animals without a fur licence,” then names the exceptions:

“except beavers (in select rural municipalities), coyotes, rabbits, raccoons and skunks. These species may be hunted year-round without a licence by Saskatchewan residents in WMZs 1-50 and 52-55 (in the SFCA).”¹

That single sentence is the whole licensing answer, and it is doing three things at once. It names coyote as an exception, it grants a year-round season, and it restricts both to Saskatchewan residents in a defined block of wildlife management zones. Read all three halves before you act on any one of them.

Is a hunting licence required to hunt coyotes in Saskatchewan?

Not if you are a Saskatchewan resident hunting in WMZs 1–50 and 52–55. No licence, no tag, no season dates. That puts Saskatchewan alongside Montana, Wyoming and Nevada rather than alongside its own neighbours — British Columbia requires a licence and Alberta requires a wildlife certificate.

It is still hunting, so every general rule on this page applies: hours, optics, vehicles, land access. A licence exemption is not a rules exemption.

Anyone born after 1 January 1971 must hold a recognized firearm safety or hunter education certificate to hold a Saskatchewan game or fur licence — relevant the moment you need any licence at all.

Non-residents

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in Saskatchewan?

This one does not have a clean published answer, and you should treat that as a stop sign rather than a green light.

Two things are verified, and both point the same way:

• The no-licence exemption is resident-only — the Trappers Guide grants it to "Saskatchewan residents," not to hunters generally
• Fur licences are available to Saskatchewan residents only, so the licensed route into furbearers is closed to a visitor too

A Saskatchewan resident is defined as a Canadian resident whose principal residence is in Saskatchewan, who has lived there for the three months before applying and holds a valid provincial health card. An American hunter is not a resident, and is not a Canadian resident either.

What the guides do not do is describe a route in. There is no non-resident coyote licence in the fee tables, and the two provisions that would otherwise let you hunt are both closed. That may mean an outfitted hunt is the only path, or it may mean something the published guides do not spell out.

Phone the Ministry of Environment before you plan anything. This page will carry a definite answer when the agency gives one; it is not going to guess at one, because the cost of being wrong here is a hunter arriving in another country to do something they are not permitted to do.

Everything federal — the firearm declaration, the $25 fee, and what a past conviction does to your trip — is on the Canada regulations index.

Season and limits

What is the season for coyote hunting in Saskatchewan?

For a resident hunting in WMZs 1–50 and 52–55, year-round. There is no closed season and no bag limit.¹

Trapping is a different calendar, and it is worth knowing even if you only ever carry a rifle, because it tells you how the province thinks about the animal:²

• Southern Fur Conservation Area (SFCA) — open season, no dates
• Northern Fur Conservation Area (NFCA) — 15 October 2026 to 15 March 2027

The SFCA is the southern open trapping area, and it is where the agricultural country and most of the coyotes are. The NFCA is the northern block, where trapping is by application through field offices and eligible trappers may only work the fur block they belong to.

Night, lights and optics

Can you hunt coyotes at night in Saskatchewan?

No. The Hunters Guide is blunt about it — it is unlawful to:

“Hunt any wildlife at night, one-half hour after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise.”³

Half an hour either side, the same window Alberta uses. It covers any wildlife, so there is no predator carve-out.

Can you use artificial lights, night vision or thermal in Saskatchewan?

No, and Saskatchewan is the most explicit of the western provinces about it. Where British Columbia bans “infrared optics” and Alberta simply bans “a light,” Saskatchewan names the whole category:

“Use any artificial light, infrared device, night vision scopes or goggles for the purpose of hunting.”³

That is four things in one line — lights, infrared, night vision scopes, and night vision goggles. There is no ambiguity to work with, and nothing here turns on whether the animal is a game species.

Between the hours rule and this one, the thermal-and-light approach that defines predator hunting across the western United States is simply not available in Saskatchewan. If that is what you are after, hunting coyotes at night covers the states where it is legal.

Calls and bait

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in Saskatchewan?

Yes — and by a different mechanism from its neighbours. British Columbia and Alberta both ban electronic calls broadly and then name coyote as an exception. Saskatchewan never casts the net that wide in the first place. The only prohibition is:

“Use recorded electronic calls other than snow and Ross’s geese vocalizations while hunting waterfowl.”⁴

The scope is waterfowl. A coyote is not waterfowl, so the rule does not reach it and no exception is needed. That is worth understanding rather than just noting, because it means there is no list of permitted sounds to stay inside — unlike Alberta, which specifies that coyote e-calls must mimic “these animals, rabbits, hares or rodents.”

See the best coyote call for what to actually run in country where you cannot use light and cannot hunt after dark.

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in Saskatchewan?

Saskatchewan’s baiting rules are written for other animals, and coyote is not named in any of them.

The whole framework — the signage requirement, the 500 m limit from campgrounds and dwellings, the 200 m limit from roads, the seasonal window, the obligation to clear the site afterwards — is scoped to hunting big game.⁵ Two further prohibitions name specific species: it is unlawful to place bait for hunting wild boar or a wolf with a firearm, and to feed wild ungulates between 1 January and 31 July.

Coyote appears in none of it. It is not big game, it is not a wolf, and it is not a wild boar, so no baiting prohibition in either guide reaches it. The Trappers Guide adds nothing on the point.

That is a statement about what the rules say, not a permission the province has written down. The two books simply do not legislate coyote bait. If you intend to bait, that is a good question to put to a field office rather than to infer — and note that a bait site on someone else’s land is a land-access question regardless.

Can you use dogs, or decoys, for coyote hunting in Saskatchewan?

Neither is addressed. The words “decoy” and “hound” do not appear in either guide, and the single reference to dogs is unrelated to hunting method. There is no permission and no prohibition to report — again, worth a call rather than an assumption.

Methods and access

Can you hunt coyotes from a vehicle in Saskatchewan?

No. It is unlawful to “carry a loaded firearm in or on a vehicle,” and separately to “use any vehicle or power boat to chase wildlife.”³

Aircraft are out too, and the prohibition explicitly covers drones: it is unlawful to “operate an aircraft or be assisted by a person operating an aircraft, including unmanned aircraft (drone), for any purpose connected with searching for, hunting or killing” wildlife.

Can you hunt coyotes alongside a big game hunter?

No, and this rule is unique among the provinces so far. It is unlawful to:

“Accompany, hunt with, aid or assist a person hunting big game while hunting coyotes or wild boar.”⁶

Read that carefully, because it catches a very ordinary situation. If your partner is out on a deer licence and you are carrying a rifle for coyotes, you are on the wrong side of it. Coyote hunting and big game hunting cannot share a party in Saskatchewan.

Is it legal to shoot coyotes on private property in Saskatchewan?

Only with permission, and Saskatchewan states it as a positive duty rather than a trespass defence:

“Hunter’s must obtain consent from the landowner or occupant before accessing private land.”³

There is no version of this where unposted land is open by default. The obligation is on the hunter to get consent first.

Two related rules catch people out:

• The wounded-animal rule — if an animal runs onto private land, it is your responsibility to contact the owner and get permission before entering. Following it in is a separate offence from hunting without consent
• The 500 m rule — no hunting within 500 metres of a building, stockade or corral occupied by people or livestock without the owner's or occupant's consent

It is separately unlawful to shoot across or along a provincial highway, provincial road or municipal road, and to retrieve a wounded animal after legal hunting hours without a conservation officer’s consent.

Firearms

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

The guide’s firearm restrictions are scoped to other categories, and none of them reach a coyote. The centre-fire rifle prohibition is written for upland game birds; the shotgun magazine limit is written for game birds.⁵ Saskatchewan publishes no calibre floor, no ammunition restriction and no magazine limit for coyote.

What still applies is federal, and it is the same in every province: suppressors are prohibited devices, and magazine capacity turns on what the magazine was designed for — five for a semi-automatic centre-fire long gun, unlimited for a manually operated one. The Canada index has the detail, and it is another quiet argument for a bolt gun on a Canadian trip.

After the shot

Can you sell a coyote pelt, or take one out of Saskatchewan?

This is where the licence you did not need comes back. A resident may hunt coyotes with no licence at all — but the moment fur changes hands or crosses the border, two separate requirements bite:⁷

• Selling — unlawful to "sell any raw or unprocessed furs without possessing a valid fur licence or fur dealer's licence"
• Taking fur out of the province — unlawful to "send or take fur out of the province without obtaining an export permit"

Read those together and the shape is clear: Saskatchewan is relaxed about the hunting and strict about the fur. A resident shooting coyotes on his own quarter needs nothing. The same man selling the pelts needs a fur licence, and shipping them out of the province needs an export permit on top.

Is there a coyote bounty in Saskatchewan?

Not currently — but there was, and it is the reason people keep asking.

Saskatchewan ran a Coyote Control Program announced in November 2009, paying hunters $20 per coyote, introduced at the request of producers after a jump in livestock losses.⁸ It was a pilot, delivered through rural municipalities, and it is not running now. Neither the current Hunters Guide nor the Trappers Guide mentions a bounty, and neither mentions hunting contests.

Rural municipalities are the thing to check, not the province. Pest control in Saskatchewan is coordinated through RMs with provincial grant support, and an individual RM may run its own predator programme. If you are hunting a specific municipality, ask that RM office rather than the Ministry.

Trapping

Is it legal to trap coyotes in Saskatchewan?

Yes, under a fur licence, and the province splits into two areas that work differently:¹

• Southern Fur Conservation Area (SFCA) — the agricultural country south of the provincial forest. A licence is available to any Saskatchewan resident who has completed a trapper education course and a firearm safety course
• Northern Fur Conservation Area (NFCA) — by application only, through field offices, and an eligible trapper may work only the fur block they are a member of

Trapping seasons are the ones in the table above — open season in the SFCA, 15 October to 15 March in the NFCA.

Coyotes in Saskatchewan

Where are the coyotes in Saskatchewan?

The province’s own fur administration answers this indirectly but usefully. The Southern Fur Conservation Area is defined as the portion of Saskatchewan outside the NFCA, “encompassing the agricultural portion of the province south of the provincial forest.”¹ That southern agricultural belt is where the year-round no-licence provision applies, where trapping runs on an open season rather than dates, and where the coyotes are.

It is the same pattern as every other prairie jurisdiction: open farmed country with abundant prey is what coyotes expanded into, and the regulations follow the animal.

How many coyotes are there in Saskatchewan?

The province does not publish a population estimate, but it publishes something arguably more useful to a hunter: the fur harvest, and a trapper abundance index that runs back a decade.

In the 2020–21 season Saskatchewan trappers marketed 32,463 coyote pelts — 31,553 from southern Saskatchewan and 910 from the Northern Fur Conservation Area — for a total value of $3,456,984, at an average of $106.49 a pelt.⁹

Put that beside the rest of the table and the picture is unmistakable. The next most-harvested furbearer that season was the beaver at 4,379 pelts. Coyote outnumbered every other species by roughly seven to one, and accounted for the overwhelming majority of the province’s fur value.

The abundance index is the other half. Trappers score each species in their area on a scale where 3.3 or higher reads as “abundant.” Coyote in the South Saskatchewan Trapping Area has scored between 2.7 and 3.8 across the last decade, sitting at 3.3 in 2020–21 — the abundant band. The Northern Fur Conservation Area runs consistently lower, 2.2 to 2.9.⁹

That is the same north/south split the licence exemption and the trapping seasons draw. The south is where the animals are.

One more thing the index tracks that matters if you are handling fur: a separate line for coyotes with mange, which has run between 0.8 and 3.3 over the same period and sat at 2.0 in 2020–21.

When is coyote mating season in Saskatchewan?

Saskatchewan publishes no species account of its own. The nearest authoritative Canadian source is British Columbia’s furbearer management guidelines, which put breeding at early February to mid-March with pups born in April and May, later further north, after a 60 to 63 day gestation.¹⁰ Nothing in the Saskatchewan material suggests the prairie calendar differs materially, but that is a British Columbia document and it is cited here as the closest published Canadian source rather than as a Saskatchewan one.

The practical point holds either way: February is when pairing and territorial response peak, and Saskatchewan’s season is open year-round. See when to hunt coyotes.