A state parks official says tests have confirmed that an animal killed by hunters in Trego County in December was a wolf.

DNA testing conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed the animal was a western Great Lakes wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf.

Ron Kaufman, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, says officials haven’t determined if the wolf was wild or had been in captivity.

The animal’s body has been turned over to the federal wildlife agency. Gray wolves are a protected species outside extreme northern United States.