CLOSE New rules expand the territory of the endangered Mexican gray wolf beyond a limited area of New Mexico and Arizona, to the Mexican border and Texas State line. 
 
 An animal seen north of Grand Canyon on Oct 27, 2014. (Photo: Arizona Game and Fish Department) Story Highlights Geneticists compared DNA from dead wolf with samples taken near Grand Canyon 
 
 Hunter says he mistook the wolf for a coyote 
 
 Wolf was one of first seen in northern Arizona in decades 
 
 Officials have confirmed that the female gray wolf killed in December by a hunter in southern Utah is the same one that had traveled hundreds of miles from Wyoming to the Grand Canyon, where it became the first gray wolf seen in northern Arizona in 70 years. 
 
 The confirmation was made after geneticists compared DNA from the wolf killed in Utah with samples taken from the wolf near the Grand Canyon, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said today. 
 
 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 agency said in a statement. 
 
 A hunter who said he mistook the animal for a coyote shot and killed the wolf in the Tushar Mountains outside of Beaver, Utah, about 200 miles north of the Grand Canyon, officials have said. 
 
 PREVIOUSLY: Rare gray wolf seen at Grand Canyon may be dead 
 
 The 3-year-old wolf was wearing a radio collar, and had become a symbol of hope for recovery of the federally protected species. 
 
 The wolf was first collared last January in Wyoming and had traveled some 450 miles to reach northern Arizona, most likely in search of food or a mate, federal officials have said. The wolf was spotted in October and photographed by visitors and hunters on the Kaibab Plateau north of the Grand Canyon National Park. 
 
 An animal seen north of the Grand Canyon on Oct 27, 2014. (Photo: Arizona Game and Fish Department) 
 
 The killing has prompted outrage from conservationists. 
 
 "It is nothing short of a tragedy that this wolf's journey across the west was cut short because she was shot and killed by a coyote hunter," Eva Sargent, director of Southwest Programs for Defenders of Wildlife, an advocacy group, said in a statement. 
 
 "This brave and ambitious female gray wolf that made it all the way from Wyoming to the Grand Canyon had already become a symbol of what gray-wolf recovery should look like — animals naturally dispersing to find suitable habitat," the statement said. 
 
 An investigation into the killing is ongoing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/1E1goCG ||||| "We are still investigating," DWR director Greg Sheehan said, "but it seems initially that it was a case of mistaken identity." 
 
 Sheehan said the hunter could face citations for killing the animal, federally protected in that part of Utah under the Endangered Species Act. The Fish & Wildlife Service will conduct the probe. 
 
 The weekend shooting is the first documented killing of a gray wolf in Utah by a hunter since officials reintroduced the animals into Yellowstone National Park and Idaho in the mid-1990s. 
 
 A 3-year-old male wolf was found dead in a leg-hold trap in Box Elder County in 2006. Another collared male wolf was found alive in a trap near Morgan in 2002 and taken back to Yellowstone. 
 
 "This is a very sad day for wolf conservation and for Utah," said Kirk Robinson, executive director of the Salt Lake City-based Western Wildlife Conservancy. "All competent wildlife biologists already know that coyote hunting, including our state bounty program, is ineffective, and therefore a waste of money — and now we see that it is also a threat to other wildlife and to wolf recovery." 
 
 Utah offers a $50 bounty for coyotes under the Mule Deer Preservation Act. In the second year of the program, which concluded June 30, more than 7,000 coyotes were turned in for the monetary reward. 
 
 Earlier this month, someone took a picture of what appears to be a wolf crossing Highway 14 east of Cedar City. It is possible, Sheehan said, that the wolf killed Sunday was the same animal spotted in Cedar Canyon and the Grand Canyon. 
 
 The Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity says the proximity of Beaver to the North Rim makes it likely that the dead wolf, named Echo in an online naming contest, came from the Grand Canyon area. 
 
 "It's heartbreaking that another far-wandering wolf has been cut down with a fatal gunshot," the center's Michael Robinson said in a release. "This female wolf could have helped wolves naturally recover in remote regions of Utah and neighboring states. Federal authorities need to conduct a full investigation into this latest killing, which is part of a disturbing pattern." 
 
 Biologists say the collars on the animal killed Sunday and the Grand Canyon wolf appear to be different. 
 
 In August, wildlife officials confirmed a wolf sighting in northeastern Utah's Uinta Mountains. That animal, believed to be a large male that had been collared near Canada's border with Idaho, has not been spotted since September. His radio collar was failing at the time and there have been no new sightings of that wolf. 
 
 brettp@sltrib.com 
 
 Twitter: @BrettPrettyman ||||| This wolf, photographed near the Grand Canyon in October, is feared to be dead after a coyote hunter in Utah mistakenly shot a gray wolf in Utah over the weekend. 
 
 Credit: Courtesy of the Center for Biological Diversity View full size image 
 
 After a 500-mile (800 kilometers) trek across the West, a lone wolf's journey may have come to an end this weekend. 
 
 A coyote hunter in Utah mistakenly shot and killed an endangered gray wolf, which wildlife groups worry was the same wolf photographed near the Grand Canyon this fall. That animal had strayed from its pack in the northern Rockies and was the first of its species to roam Arizona in 70 years. 
 
 The slain wolf, which was wearing a radio collar, was shot near the south end of the Tushar Mountains near Beaver, Utah, on Sunday (Dec. 28), the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) said in a statement. [In Photos: The Fight Over Gray Wolves' Endangered Status] 
 
 When the hunter realized the animal wasn't a coyote, he alerted state officials who then contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The federal agency confirmed the animal was a 3-year-old female gray wolf that had been outfitted with its collar near Cody, Wyoming, earlier this year. Wildlife groups are still waiting to hear whether DNA tests will confirm that the wolf was really the lone female they had been tracking since October. 
 
 "This was a worry of ours," said Michael Robinson, with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Personally, I'm very saddened by it." 
 
 Gray wolves were wiped out from Arizona in the 1940s. That's why Robinson and other conservationists were excited by the news this past October that a gray wolf was repeatedly spotted near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Federal officials failed to capture the wolf to remove its radio collar, but DNA tests of the wolf's feces confirmed that it was a female from the northern Rocky Mountains population. 
 
 Although gray wolves have been removed from the endangered species list (and are even legally hunted) in some parts of the country, they still receive federal protections in many states, including Arizona and Utah. It's not clear whether the hunter will face any charges. 
 
 "This shows how vulnerable gray wolves are and how important real protection is," Robinson told Live Science. "What we need is a response that follows the Endangered Species Act and prevents these kinds of occurrences from happening again. We think a thorough investigation is imperative." 
 
 Robinson added that better education programs could help teach people what gray wolves look like and make people aware that the animals are endangered. 
 
 Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
– Hundred of miles from its Wyoming home, "914F" wandered to the rocky North Rim of the Grand Canyon last fall—the first gray wolf spotted there in 70 years, the Arizona Republic notes—before heading into Utah, likely searching for food or a mate. But in December, the wolf's journey came to an end after a hunter there mistook her for a coyote and shot her dead, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Using DNA testing, the US Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed the 3-year-old collared animal was the same one seen at the Grand Canyon, the Republic notes. "It is nothing short of a tragedy that this wolf's journey across the west was cut short," Eva Sargent, a director for Defenders of Wildlife, tells the Chronicle. "This brave and ambitious female gray wolf … had already become a symbol of what gray wolf recovery should look like: animals naturally dispersing to find suitable habitat." Gray wolves weren't always isolated to certain parts of the country: All of North America used to be their home, Defenders of Wildlife notes, but they were killed off throughout much the US in the 1930s. What's worrying some animal advocates is that the federal government is considering removing endangered-species status from gray wolves in all regions: When they were delisted from the Northern Rockies, mass killings of the creatures took place in multiple states, including Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. "Sadly, with the US Fish and Wildlife Service preparing to remove all protections for gray wolves, except for Mexican gray wolves, in the near future, it will become harder and harder for wolves to travel safely, and less … likely that we will hear their howls echo through places like the Grand Canyon," Sargent tells the Chronicle. (Wolves could be hurt by a border fence.)