Conservationists decry killing of protected wolf in Colorado

[WorldNews]

(Reuters) - Conservationists on Friday criticized as irresponsible a coyote hunter's shooting and killing of a protected gray wolf that had likely trekked hundreds of miles (km) to Colorado from the Northern Rocky Mountains. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said late on Thursday that test results revealed the animal shot and killed outside Kremmling on April 29 was a wolf, the first confirmed in Colorado since a radio-collared gray wolf was illegally poisoned in 2009 in the northwest part of the state. Federal and state wildlife managers said the hunter had been shooting coyotes at long range and that he immediately notified Colorado Parks and Wildlife when he realized the animal was possibly a gray wolf, which is protected in most of the Lower 48 states under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

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