The northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf has been officially removed from the federal list of endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday. Idaho, Montana and Wyoming will assume full management authority for the continued conservation of the gray wolf, federal officials said in a statement.

The population of the gray wolf breed has exceeded federal recovery goals and now numbers over 1,500 wolves, with at least 100 breeding pairs in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. There have been reports of wolf sightings in northern Utah, most recently near the Dutch John Airport not far from Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources' Kevin Bunnell called the most recent sighting credible. Experts, however, have found only a set of tracks and have not actually seen a wolf.

The animal's territory has been defined by federal oversight agencies as the Rocky Mountain wolf Distinct Population Segment (DPS), which includes Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, the eastern third of Washington and Oregon and a small corner of north-central Utah. A wolf seen in that territory is considered federally delisted and no longer under the protection of U.S. Fish and Wildlife guidelines for endangered species. If, however, a wolf wanders into Colorado, which isn't listed in the DPS, it should still be considered federally endangered.