It’s over. Nine days of watching, worrying, and drones buzzing over the hills of Daejeon, and finally, Neukgu is back. The male wolf, who somehow managed to burrow his way out of the O-World zoo on April 8, was found early Friday morning. There was this moment—I saw the clip on social media—where rescuers hauled his limp, tranquillized body out of a ditch near an expressway. It was quiet, save for the muffled voices of the responders. It’s a relief he’s safe, I guess, but the whole thing really left people on edge.
People were genuinely scared. You could feel the anxiety across the country, especially with memories of that poor puma back in 2018. When a creature like that gets out, the fear isn’t just for the people—it’s for the animal, too. Even the leadership got involved; Lee Jae Myung had to step in and reassure everyone that the military and police were doing their best to keep the wolf alive. It’s strange how much a single animal can capture a nation’s attention like that, isn’t it? Or maybe it just hits on something else.
He wasn’t exactly hiding well, though. A driver caught him on dashcam at one point, just trotting down a dark mountain road, his eyes reflecting the headlights. It looked almost lonely. Authorities had a close call earlier in the week on a mountain, but he slipped right through their perimeter. He was definitely doing his own thing out there.
Now, Neukgu is back in the zoo’s care. Veterinarians had to go in with a scope to pull a fishing hook out of his stomach—which sounds incredibly painful—but otherwise, he seems to be in decent shape. Misryoum reports that the staff is keeping him in a separate area to stabilize. The zoo is still closed, which honestly makes sense considering how many times animals have managed to slip out of that place recently. They say they’re reviewing security, but who knows if that’ll actually be enough to keep things locked down this time. I suppose we’ll see when they decide to reopen the gates.
He’s a third-generation descendant of wolves brought in from Russia back in 2008. The goal, originally, was to bring back something that looked like the old Korean wolves. Now, he’s just the zoo’s most famous resident. I imagine the crowds are going to be massive once they finally let people back in to see him. Welcome home, I guess—or at least back to the enclosure.
It’s going to be a long road of monitoring for the staff. Director Lee Kwan Jong seems focused on the recovery, and honestly, that’s probably the right priority for now. The mayor thanked everyone for the support, but you have to wonder what the wolves themselves think of all this human panic.