The uplifting story of one wolf’s 500-mile journey to the Grand Canyon has reached its sad conclusion: Federal wildlife researchers have confirmed that the animal wildlife enthusiasts had nicknamed Echo is dead.

The three-year-old female made news last November when reports started pouring in of a gray wolf along the Grand Canyon’s North Rim—the first time the endangered species had been seen in the area in more than 70 years. She wore a radio collar, and wildlife officials identified her as 914F; she’d originally been tagged in Cody, Wyoming, as a one-year-old.

But the happy news was short-lived. In December, a hunter in southern Utah shot and killed the wolf, claiming he mistook it for a coyote, according to Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources.

Echo. (Photo: Courtesy Arizona Game and Fish Dept.)

The killing took place about 150 miles north of where the wolf was originally seen near the Grand Canyon. But DNA samples taken from scat in November concluded the Utah wolf was the same animal, United States Fish and Wildlife officials announced Wednesday.

FWS spokesperson Steve Segin said the investigation of the incident is ongoing, but no charges have been filed against the hunter for killing a federally protected species.

“This brave and ambitious female gray wolf that made it all the way from the Wyoming to the Grand Canyon had already become a symbol of what gray wolf recovery should look like,” Eva Sargent, a director at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we have seen time and again that coyote hunting in habitat frequented by wolves is deadly for wolves.”

FWS Northern Rockies wolf coordinator Mike Jimenez has been watching wolves disperse across long distances for the past 30 years. Before the agency started reintroducing wolves in Yellowstone National Park and Idaho, Jimenez saw Canada’s wolf population expand through the 1980s.

“We even saw Canadian wolves come as far south as Montana,” he said. “We started with 31 wolves in Yellowstone and 35 in Idaho, and now we’ve got around 1,700 wolves total, and they’re moving into Washington, Oregon, California, and now Arizona—it’s all due to dispersal.”

Gray wolves are hard-wired for it. When they reach a certain age, they push out from the pack and search for a mate. Most of the time, they stay within a few miles of their home. “But every now and again we get goofballs who set out on hundred-mile journeys,” Jimenez said.

For Echo, the 500-mile trek from her home in the Northern Rockies to the Grand Canyon was probably more like 1,000 miles—wolves like to meander.

Jimenez said the only natural barriers for wolves are large bodies of water and huge stretches of desert, but that doesn’t account for the people component. Venturing wolves often meet their demise through hunting, car strikes, or other human interactions.

“There’s a people component that brings an emotional factor to this animal, but I can guarantee you they’ll keep dispersing as long as they’re thriving,” Jimenez said.

Those human hindrances could become more frequent, as FWS officials may remove protections for gray wolves in the near future.

“Sadly, with the FWS preparing to remove all protections for gray wolves, except for Mexican gray wolves, 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, which holds some of their ancestors’ most favored habitat,” Sargent said.