NJ Announces Special Coyote Hunt

Starting on January 2, New Jersey will have a special permit season to hunt for coyotes.

The Garden State is now home to nearly 5,000 coyotes, which have been settling into backyards and even creating their own suburban niche. In order to control the population, a number of hunting seasons, running from September to March are set in place.

Lawrence Hajna, with the Department of Environmental Protection, said the special session in January will allow "hunters to go out at night, actually 24-hours a day to look for coyotes, they have to be in a sitting or standing position and call the coyote to them."

Hanja said they have become part of the state's landscape. "These are highly adaptive animals, They can live in most any type of environment. They are also very shy and reclusive, it's very hard to see a coyote."

Over 2,000 residents in New Jersey hold this permit, but Hajna doesn't expect to see a lot of coyotes harvested this season. He says coyotes are extremely smart and difficult to find.  
 
The state established its coyote hunting program in 1997.