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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Catron County man must pay $2,300 in restitution and spend a year on probation after pleading guilty to killing a Mexican gray wolf, an endangered species.

Craig Thiessen’s restitution payments will go to the Mexican Wolf Recovery Program, federal prosecutors announced in a news release Friday.

According to the release, Thiessen, 46, admitted that in February 2015 “he intentionally captured a Mexican gray wolf in a trap on his grazing allotment in the Gila National Forest and hit the wolf with a shovel.  Thiessen admitted knowing that the animal was a Mexican gray wolf because it bore a tracking collar, which is affixed to all Mexican gray wolves in the area.”