Social media erupted in celebration as a two-year-old wolf that escaped from a zoo in South Korea was captured safely after a nine-day search that kept the nation on edge.
The male wolf, named Neukgu, burrowed out of his enclosure at the O-World theme park in Daejeon on April 8, prompting a search that gripped the nation and raised fears about his safety.
Intense national concern even prompted President Lee Jae-myung to make a statement reassuring the public that police, fire officials and the military were doing their best to capture the wolf alive.
At one point, authorities nearly captured Neukgu after spotting him on a mountain near the zoo earlier this week, but he broke away from a perimeter set by rescue workers.
A driver also spotted the wolf and shared a video of him trotting along a dark mountain road.
Neukgu was finally found and tranquilised on a hill near an expressway yesterday, after an hours-long search involving drones, police and emergency workers and veterinarians, according to city and zoo officials.
He was in stable condition after being taken back to the zoo, where veterinarians used a scope to remove a fishing hook from his stomach but found no other significant health issues.
Social media was flooded with celebratory posts, including messages like “welcome back” and “Neukgu, it’s dangerous outside the house”.
Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo in a Facebook post expressed his “deepest gratitude to citizens of Daejeon and also the entire nation for your support in ensuring Neukgu’s safe return”.
Born at the zoo in 2024, Neukgu is a third-generation descendent of a group of wolves brought from Russia in 2008 as part of a project to reintroduce wolves resembling those that lived in Korea before going extinct in the 1960s. — AP
