WILLIAMS, AZ (AZ Family) — Federal and state officials, along with conservation groups, are asking for the public’s help after a federally protected Mexican wolf was found dead near Flagstaff earlier this month.

A female Mexican wolf known as Hope and tagged as “F2979” was found dead on November 7 near Forest Service Road 2058 and East Spring Valley Roadabout six miles northeast of state Route 64 and Spring Valley Road in Williams.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is without revealing how he died but says “the fatality was not related to the actions of agency management.”

Officials say she was the first documented outside of the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area (MWEPA), located north of I-40 near Flagstaff, earlier this year. She was captured, fitted with a GPS collar and then released back into the wild in July.

“In every photo I saw of Hope, her collar was clearly visible. If she was shot, the shooter had to know it wasn’t a coyote,” said Cyndi Tuell, Arizona and New Mexico director of The Western Watersheds Project. “If someone killed Hope, the full weight of federal and state law should be brought against the person or persons who took her from our human community who found inspiration and joy in her existence and from the non-human community which depends on top predators to bring balance to the landscape.”

Hope left the MWEPA again and was seen traveling with another Mexican wolf named Mystery. In October, FWS began searching for the pair to bring them back and later found Hope dead. Officials do not know what happened to the other Mexican wolf.

Hope was at the center of a legal battle last month as conservation groups asked the state to leave her and Mystery alone instead of moving them back to the designated area.

“The wolves themselves show us what they need and where they want to be. Why not let them go there,” Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project, Arizona’s Family said in October.

The FWS says killing a Mexican wolf is a violation of state law and the federal Endangered Species Act, which can result in up to a year in jail and criminal penalties of up to $50,000.

The agency is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to a conviction in this case. The Arizona Game and Fish Department and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish’s Operation Game Thief also offer rewards of up to $1,000.

In addition, conservation groups and others have pledged additional funding of up to $51,500 for a combined reward of $103,000.

“Hope has made the dreams of so many here in Flagstaff come true, including school children who named itthat wolves can return and restore natural balance to the Grand Canyon region,” said Taylor McKinnon, director of Southwest at Center for Biological Diversity. “Anyone with information about this senseless death should report it so our elk-filled forests can once again thrive with wolves that belong here.”

Anyone with information is asked to call the US Fish and Wildlife Office in Pinetop at (346) 254-0515. Tips can also be provided to the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Operation Game Thief at (800) 352-0700.

says the FWS Mexican wolves were common in the Southwest until they were nearly eliminated from the wild in the 1970s “due to conflicts with livestock.”

After they were listed as endangered in 1976, a federal program was put in place to save them from extinction, and in 1999, the FWS released the first captive Mexican wolves into MWEPAs in Arizona and New Mexico.

According to Arizona Game and Fish, the state agency has been actively involved in reintroducing Mexican wolves to portions of their historic range for decades. Learn more about the program on the state website..

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