How to participate
Bring up to five coyote carcasses per month March through August to a DNR game management office. The Hall County office is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and located at 2150 Dawsonville Highway in Gainesville.
Range: North American continent from Alaska to Central America
Characteristics: Keen eyesight and smell; high-pitched cries along with growling, barking and whining; usually live in packs; timid
Diet: Small mammals, dead animals and succulent plants
Georgia hunters are encouraged to thin the state’s population of coyotes.
The animals are not native but “very common” in all 159 Georgia counties. They are highly adaptable and can find “good habitat quality” in Hall County, according to Charlie Killmaster, wildlife biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR is sponsoring the Georgia Coyote Challenge, which will earn hunters an entry into a monthly drawing for a lifetime sportsman’s license for each coyote killed, up to five per month. The contest will run from March through August.
Participants may bring coyote carcasses to the Northeast Region Game Management office at 2150 Dawsonville Highway in Gainesville from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Roadkills, spoiled carcasses and live coyotes are not accepted.
Chris Mowry is with the Atlanta Coyote Project, which conducts scientific research about the animals around Atlanta. He calls the idea cruel, partly because it will leave young coyote pups to starve if their parents are killed.
But Killmaster said the contest responds to public concerns about overpopulation.
“It’s not an elimination effort or anything like that,” Killmaster said.
There is no closed season for coyotes because they are not native.
“Currently, scientific research suggests that removal of coyotes during the spring and summer is the most advantageous time to reduce the impact of predation on native wildlife,” said Georgia DNR Commissioner Mark Williams in a news release. “We want to encourage coyote removal efforts during this critical period.”