Report a Coyote Encounter

This is general information, not veterinary, medical or legal advice. For an injured or aggressive animal, a bite, a pet attack or a suspected rabies exposure, call your doctor, your vet, local animal control, or the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD).

Reviewed by the editorial desk against the cited sources. The desk holds no wildlife-biology, veterinary or medical credential; see our editorial policy.

CoyoteBytes does not collect coyote reports. There is no form on this site, and nothing you type here goes to an agency. To report a coyote encounter, contact the agency yourself using the steps below. For the agencies and numbers in one place, see Who to Call About Coyotes in Pima County and Arizona. For what to do during the encounter, see The step-by-step sighting guide.

Prepare Your Report With the Builder

Before you call or write, the coyote encounter report builder turns what you remember into a short summary: where and when, what the animal did, whether people or pets were involved and whether anyone was hurt. It runs in your browser, saves nothing and sends nothing; you still contact the agency yourself. For steps by situation, see what to do if you encounter a coyote.

Emergency or injury

If a person is injured, get medical care first. The CDC says to wash any wound with soap and water and seek medical care urgently. If your pet is hurt, get veterinary attention first.

Sick, injured or oddly behaving animal

• In Pima County, call Pima Animal Care Center at 520-724-5900 and press 4, or use its online contact form.
• To report sick or dead wildlife to AZGFD, its August 2025 bulletin listed a 24-hour hotline, 623-236-7201. Confirm the number at the AZGFD living with coyotes page.
• Keep your distance and do not touch the animal. Pima County’s 2022 reminder says to stay away from wildlife that seems sick, is on the ground or is hurt.

Bite, scratch or pet contact

• A person bitten or scratched: see a doctor or health provider right away, then contact local animal control.
• A pet that touched a wild animal: see your vet. Pima Animal Care Center’s 2021 release says to call Animal Protection at 520-724-5900, option 4.

What to have ready (our suggestion)

The agencies we could open do not publish a required list. In general it helps to know where and when you saw the animal, what it was doing, whether people or pets were involved, and whether anyone was hurt. Note your own address so the agency can reach you.

Sightings that are not urgent

The sources we could open do not give a reporting process for routine sightings of healthy coyotes keeping their distance. Ask AZGFD or Pima Animal Care Center whether they want the report. This site is not an agency and cannot assess a specific animal.

No map or database

Earlier versions of CoyoteBytes (2007 to 2011) had an encounter map and a report form. They have not been brought back; there is no data to show. If you want to tell us about a sighting for our editorial purposes, use our contact page, but do not use it to report anything urgent.

What AZGFD says about reporting

Call 911 if a coyote is approaching a person or has bitten someone. For wildlife acting aggressively toward people, AZGFD’s 24-hour Communications Center is 623-236-7201 (AZGFD tips release, accessed 2026-11-14). The local AZGFD office is staffed 8 to 5, Monday to Friday, with a dispatcher after hours and on weekends (AZGFD, Living with Coyotes). AZGFD does not respond to relocation or removal requests unless there is a public-safety concern, so a healthy coyote that is simply in the neighborhood is not what it removes.