Minwoo Park and Joyce Lee
Seoul: A wolf that escaped from a zoo in the South Korean city of Daejeon has been recaptured after being on the run for nine days, bringing to an end a saga that forced an elementary school to close, spawned a meme coin and involved a search party of more than 100 people.
After a number of sightings following the escape and evading earlier capture attempts, the two-year-old male wolf, named Neukgu, was recaptured on Friday by a search team using a tranquiliser gun operated by a veterinarian.
The wolf had earlier been spotted near a highway interchange about four kilometres from the zoo on Thursday, according to a zoo official.
Neukgu was taken back to the O-World zoo and was undergoing a health check, the official said. He said the wolf’s vital signs were normal, though vets had found and removed a fishing hook from its stomach.
The zoo and an associated theme park were closed after the wolf’s escape and would take some time to reopen, the official said.
Daejeon mayor Lee Jang-woo welcomed the wolf’s safe return and thanked the search party, pledging in a Facebook post to “prepare measures for animal welfare and civil safety in the process of reorganising [the zoo]”.
The zoo has been subject to criticism from animal rights activists, who have called for better animal protection measures after the wolf’s return, noting the 2018 escape of a puma, named Bborong, from the same facility, the AFP reported.
The puma was reportedly shot dead after its escape.
Neukgu’s escape in Daejeon, about 170 kilometres south of Seoul, had captured the nation’s attention. South Korean online message boards were abuzz with news of the recapture. Some posters called Neukgu an “honorary ambassador for the zoo” and vowed to visit him once it reopened.
Neukgu appeared to have slipped out of the zoo last week by burrowing under a fence, a zoo official said at the time.
A nearby elementary school was closed as a precaution, while more than 100 personnel searched for the animal, in an effort that included drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras.
The episode spawned a cryptocurrency meme coin named Neukgu, which appeared on decentralised cryptocurrency exchanges a week ago.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung weighed in on the social media platform X last week, urging authorities to ensure a safe outcome.
Born in 2024, Neukgu is part of a program to restore the Korean wolf, a species considered extinct in the wild.
Reuters
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