SWAN QUARTER, N.C. (AP) -- Wildlife protection advocates are calling for federal authorities to care for the puppies of a rare red wolf legally shot and killed on private property last week.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk reports that a landowner in Hyde County in northeastern North Carolina reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that he shot the wolf June 17.

Wildlife Service spokesman Pete Benjamin in Raleigh says the wolf showed signs of nursing, but officials don't know how many or where the puppies might be.

Officials say the wolf had left the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, where fewer than 100 of the wolves live as an experimental effort to preserve the rare species in the wild.

The law allows landowners to kill wolves persistently living on their property.

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Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://pilotonline.com