BASSETT, Neb. (AP) — Federal wildlife officials have confirmed that a gray wolf was shot and killed last fall in north-central Nebraska south of Bassett.

The 81-pound male wolf was shot by a rancher checking on his livestock Nov. 16. Wildlife officials said the wolf had coloration like a coyote, but was much larger. The rancher told authorities he had recently lost three yearling calves to what he suspected were coyote attacks.

It’s only the second confirmed case of a wolf being killed in Nebraska in more than a century, the Omaha World-Herald reported Tuesday.

The newspaper learned of the killing through records it obtained from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which declined to prosecute the rancher because no criminal intent was found.

Officials said DNA testing confirmed that the animal was a gray wolf that originated with packs in the western Great Lakes, one of only two regions with active breeding packs in the lower 48 states.

Days before the November presidential election, the Trump administration announced that gray wolves were being delisted as a federal endangered species effective Jan. 4, except for a small population of Mexican gray wolves in New Mexico and Arizona. The move led wildlife advocacy groups to sue, seeking to restore safeguards for the animals.