Wolf killed in Utah confirmed as rare animal seen in Grand Canyon

Genetic testing has confirmed what wildlife lovers already feared: A rare gray wolf killed by a hunter in Utah on Dec. 28 was the same lone animal seen last year near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

A laboratory at the University of Idaho made the determination after extensive analysis, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reported Wednesday.

“The results were conclusive that it is the same wolf, identified by the Service as 914F, which was collared near Cody, Wyo., on Jan. 8, 2014, and spotted in the Grand Canyon area in the fall of last year,” the Fish & Wildlife Service said in a statement.

The female wolf, nicknamed Echo, was shot dead by a hunter near Beaver, Utah, roughly 150 miles north of where it had last been seen in Arizona. According to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the hunter confused the animal for a coyote and contacted officials when he realized his mistake.

The Fish & Wildlife Service continues to investigate the killing of the wolf, which is considered endangered in Southern Utah and protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Not everyone buys the hunter’s story.

As Flagstaff, Ariz., environmentalist Robin Silver told Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star newspaper: “Echo had a collar around her neck. But I guess all coyotes in Utah have collars, right? The hunter knew exactly what he was doing.”

Conservationists and others reacted with excitement when the wolf was first spotted and photographed wearing an inoperative radio collar last October on Arizona’s Kaibab Plateau, at the edge of Grand Canyon National Park about 250 miles east of Las Vegas.

It marked the first confirmed sighting of a gray wolf near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon since 1939, and it came at a time when the Obama Administration is considering rolling back federal protections for the animal.

Advocates for the wolf said Echo’s death is reminder that the gray wolf isn’t out of the woods yet.

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.