Wolf that escaped from zoo found in South Korea. The whole country followed its search

A wolf named Nyku from the O-World zoo in Daejeon, South Korea, dug a tunnel under the fence and escaped.

Almost the entire country followed its search, and in its home zoo, wolf howls and visitor announcements, which Nyku was accustomed to since childhood, were broadcast. After nine days, the escapee was finally found, writes the BBC.

Nyku is a Korean wolf (Canis lupus coreanus, more commonly known as the Himalayan wolf – Canis lupus chanco), believed to be almost extinct in the wild in South Korea.

The O-World amusement park in Daejeon includes a zoo, one of whose missions is to restore the population of Korean wolves. For this purpose, seven wolves were brought to Daejeon from the Saratov region in 2008.

Nyku is a descendant of one of these wolves. He was born in the zoo in January 2024 and lived there until his escape on April 8, 2026.

On April 8, the wolf dug a tunnel under the fence and escaped. The zoo closed, and the search for Nyku began. Animal rights activists feared that the wolf would not be able to survive in the wild — or that it would be killed during an attempt to catch it: in 2018, an eight-year-old puma Parongi escaped from the same O-World and was shot by police.

Search for the escapee

More than 300 police officers, firefighters, and soldiers were involved in the search for the wolf. Local residents tried to help them, but not all their efforts proved useful. Schoolchildren, wrote Chosun Ilbo, mistook dogs for the escaped wolf.

The day after his escape, Nyku was spotted on thermal cameras near the zoo. But his trail was lost again when the search team changed the battery in a drone camera.

The situation was complicated by the fact that due to warming temperatures, the wolf could only be spotted on thermal imagers at night.

To attract Nyku, O-World began playing wolf howls and visitor announcements – the wolf had grown up listening to them.

On Monday evening, a new lead emerged: a video was posted on social media showing a wolf running on the road in the light of car headlights. But this time, too, it could not be caught.

Even South Korean President Lee Jae-myung commented on the escape. "I sincerely hope there will be no human casualties, and I pray that Nyku returns safe and sound," he wrote on social media.

Tranquilizer dart and return to the zoo

Finally, late on Thursday evening, after reports that the wolf had been seen near a highway, the search and rescue team began preparing for an operation to capture the escapee. At 00:15 on Friday, they started preparing tranquilizers. At 00:39, they fired a dart. At 00:44, Nyku was caught.

Павялічыць

The wolf was taken to the zoo, where veterinarians examined it: its pulse and breathing were normal, but when Nyku was X-rayed, a fishhook was found in its stomach.

As a precautionary measure, the hook was removed by endoscopy, and the wolf is now recovering in its home zoo, O-World. Otherwise, veterinarians say the escapee is completely healthy. However, until full recovery, it will be kept separate from other animals.

When the zoo will reopen, the management has not yet decided.

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