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State pulls gray wolf traps in Rich County

(Dawn Villella | AP Photo) This 2004 file photo shows a gray wolf at the Wildlife Science Center in Forest Lake, Minn. Evidence of a gray wolf was discovered in Rich County, Utah, earlier this week.

Utah officials are pulling the traps they set out earlier this month in Rich County that were meant to catch a rare gray wolf that had killed a calf there, according to FOX13.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food abandoned trying to capture and kill the endangered animal after not finding any more signs it was there, FOX13 reports.

The gray wolf is protected under the Endangered Species Act in much of Utah, but there is an exception in the northwestern part of the state north of Interstate 80 and east of Interstate 84, including Rich County.

Fifteen to 20 individual wolves have been seen in Utah over the past 15 years, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources recently told The Salt Lake Tribune. Almost all of those have been in counties near Wyoming, Idaho or Colorado. There is no evidence the wolves have bred in Utah.

Gray wolves were extirpated from the state in the 1920s.

For more, visit FOX13.

Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX13 are content-sharing partners.