It ’s a match : transmitted testing has unluckily confirmed that the grizzly wolf shot in Utah on December 28 was indeed the same fauna that recently appeared in the Grand Canyon for the first time in 70 years . The saddening announcement was made yesterday by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service .
“ The results were conclusive that it is the same brute , discover by the Service as 914F , ” the Fish & Wildlife Service ( FWS ) said in apress loss .
conservationist and nature lovers rejoiced last gloaming when a solo gray wolf wasspottedroaming the North Rim of the Grand Canyon . The animal was identified by the FWS as a female person , 914F , which had been wireless - nab at the starting line of the yr in Wyoming , but during her epic700 kilometer(450 Admiralty mile ) travel the twist block up working and enterprise to get her and replace it were fruitless . The wolf , which was later nicknamed Echo , was subsequentlyphotographed several timeson Arizona ’s Kaibab Plateau .
The wolf ’s sighting was momentous because the once plebeian mintage was virtually eradicate by humans in Arizona in the ‘ 30s and had n’t been seen around the famous landmark since 1939 . Many also believed that her presence signaled theearly stages of recoveryof the species .
But thing turned sour in tardy December when a gray wolf wasshot deadby a hunter near Beaver , southwestern Utah , after he reportedly mistook the animal for a coyote . Wildlife mathematical group feared that the fauna , which was a receiving set - collared female , was the lone ranger from the Grand Canyon , but DNA analysis was command to confirm this . After a nail - biting month , scientists at the University of Idahorevealedthat she matched sample obtained from feces last year .
Although the man who shot her , a Utah res publica - authorize coyote bounty hunter , claims it was a case of false personal identity and contacted the FWS as soon as he realize , not everyone is confident . “ Echo had a apprehension around her neck . But I judge all coyotes in Utah have collar , ripe ? ” environmentalist Robin Silver told Tucson ’s Arizona Daily Star Newspaper . “ The hunter roll in the hay exactly what he was doing . ”
The gray wolf isconsidered endangeredin southern Utah and is federally protected under the Endangered Species Act in both Arizona and Utah , so investigating into her killing will proceed .
[ ViaUS FWS , Las Vegas Review JournalandScience ]
