A two-year-old male wolf named Neukgu has been successfully recaptured after a nine-day escape that captivated South Korea. The animal, which fled its enclosure at O-World zoo in Daejeon on 8 April by burrowing under a fence, was eventually tranquillised on a hill near an expressway early on Friday morning.
The search for the wolf became a matter of national priority, involving drones, police, and military personnel. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung took the unusual step of issuing a public statement to reassure citizens that every effort was being made to ensure the wolf was caught alive.
This high level of concern was partly driven by animal rights advocates who recalled a 2018 incident where a puma was killed after escaping from the same zoo.
During his time in the wild, Neukgu became a celebrity as the public tracked his movements. In one widely shared video, a driver filmed the wolf trotting along a dark mountain path. Although rescue workers nearly cornered him on a mountain earlier in the week, the animal managed to break through their perimeter.
Following his eventual capture in a ditch, Neukgu was returned to the zoo in a stable condition. While he was under sedation, veterinarians performed a procedure to remove a fishing hook from his stomach, but they found no other major health concerns. He is currently being monitored in a separate area to recover.
Neukgu was born at the zoo in 2024 and is a third-generation descendant of wolves brought from Russia in 2008.
The animals are central to a conservation project aimed at reintroducing a species similar to the wolves that inhabited the Korean Peninsula before they went extinct in the 1960s.
Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo expressed his gratitude to the public for their support during the search. Lee Kwan Jong, the director of O-World, stated that the facility would remain closed while security protocols are reviewed. Neukgu is expected to be a significant attraction for the zoo once it reopens to the public.
