An endangered gray wolf shot to death in Utah was positively identified Wednesday as the female lobo seen last fall on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, the first of its kind to be seen in the region in half a century. 
 
 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service used DNA analysis to confirm that the dead canine was the celebrated collared female known as “914F” that wandered hundreds of miles from the Northern Rockies. The lone wolf, originally collared near Cody, Wyoming, was killed in December by a Utah hunter who claimed he mistook the predator for a coyote. 
 
 “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,” said Eva Sargent, the southwest programs director for Defenders of Wildlife. “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 tendency of hunters to mistake wolves for coyotes is a major issue, especially in California, where conservationists believe a pair of wolves and their offspring currently living across the Oregon border will eventually disperse. In June, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to list wolves under the California Endangered Species Act, a decision that gives conservationists some measure of comfort. Problem is, those protections don’t exist elsewhere. 
 
 The federal delisting of wolves in 2011 in the Northern Rockies led to a killing spree in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. More than 2,800 wolves have been killed in the northern Rockies, resulting in a 9 percent population decline, since federal protections were lifted there, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Minnesota has seen a 25 percent decline in its wolf population. 
 
 The federal government is now considering a proposal to strip Endangered Species Act protection from gray wolves throughout their range. 
 
 “Unfortunately, we have seen time and again that coyote hunting in habitat frequented by wolves is deadly for wolves,” Sargent said. “Sadly, with the U.S. 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 and less likely that we will hear their howls echo through places like the Grand Canyon.” 
 
 Gray wolves, which once roamed across the continent, were exterminated in the lower 48 states, except Minnesota, in the 19th and early 20th centuries largely to protect livestock. The last known native California wolf was trapped and killed in Lassen County in 1924. 
 
 In 1995, 66 Canadian wolves were released in Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in an attempt to bring the apex predator back. They have since moved into northeastern Oregon, where there are more than two dozen wolves in a handful of packs, but the population is still far below the two million that once lived across North America. ||||| 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 ||||| Gray wolves range in color from grizzled gray or black to all-white. As the ancestor of the domestic dog, the gray wolf resembles German shepherds or malamutes. Though they once nearly disappeared from the lower 48 states, today wolves have returned to the Great Lakes, northern Rockies and Southwestern United States. 
 
 Wolves play a key role in keeping ecosystems healthy. They help keep deer and elk populations in check, which can benefit many other plant and animal species. The carcasses of their prey also help to redistribute nutrients and provide food for other wildlife species, like grizzly bears and scavengers. Scientists are just beginning to fully understand the positive ripple effects that wolves have on ecosystems. 
 
 Diet 
 
 Wolves eat ungulates, or large hoofed mammals, like elk, deer, moose and caribou, as well as beaver, rabbits and other small prey. Wolves are also scavengers and often eat animals that have died due to other causes. 
 
 Population 
 
 Did You Know? Wolves have unique howls, like fingerprints, that scientists (and other pack members) can use to tell them apart. 
 
 There are an estimated 7,000 to 11,200 gray wolves in Alaska, 3,700 in the Great Lakes region and 1,675 in the Northern Rockies. 
 
 Habitat & Range 
 
 Gray wolves were once common throughout all of North America, but were exterminated in most areas of the United States by the mid 1930s. Today, their range has been reduced to Canada, Alaska, the Great Lakes, northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest. Thanks to the reintroduction of wolves in 1995, Yellowstone National Park is one of the most favored places to see and hear wolves in their native habitat. Wolves require large areas of contiguous habitat that can include forests and mountainous terrain, and Mexican gray wolves can thrive in desert and brush in the southwest. Suitable habitat must have sufficient access to prey, protection from excessive persecution, and areas for denning and taking shelter. 
 
 Did You Know? The alpha female and alpha male wolves of a pack usually mate for life. 
 
 Behavior 
 
 Wolves live, travel and hunt in packs of 7 to 8 animals on average. Packs include the mother and father wolves (called the alphas), their pups and older offspring. The alpha female and male are typically the pack leaders that track and hunt prey, choose den sites and establish the pack's territory. Wolves develop strong social bonds within their packs. 
 
 
 
 Wolves have a complex communication system ranging from barks and whines to growls and howls. While they don't actually howl at the moon, they are more active at dawn and dusk, and they do howl more when it's lighter at night, which occurs more often when the moon is full.
– 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.)