A FUGITIVE wolf has taken a nation by storm after burrowing out of his South Korean zoo enclosure and roaming free for a week.
The two-year-old runaway named Neukgu escaped from his home in Daejeon, sparking a countrywide cub-hunt as well as inspiring an eponymous meme crypto-coin.
Neukgu was seen walking on CCTV not far from the zoo he called home Credit: Reuters
After evading authorities for a week, he was finally captured and taken home on Thursday Credit: EPA
More than 300 firefighters, cops and military troops were deployed in the search for the wolf, who evaded them for a week.
Neukgu appeared on thermal imaging cameras the day after he first escaped, showing up as a glowing blob weaving through foliage near Daejeon O-World.
But he soon disappeared from the area around the zoo and theme park that he broke loose from.
After his escape, authorities swiftly shut down a nearby elementary school as a safety precaution.
Loudspeakers at the zoo, which was closed to visitors after his escape, were blaring wolf howls and park announcements – the ones that Neukgu grew up listening to.
Authorities then lost track of him when they replaced the battery of a camera drone, according to local media.
In another breakthrough on Monday evening, the local fire department was alerted to a sighting of Neukgu, who was spotted on a mountain about 1.2 miles away from O-World.
A video of the wolf was posted to social media, capturing him scampering on a road in the dark, caught in the headlights of a vehicle.
Authorities jumped to find him, launching a search-and-rescue mission that involved dozens of officers and military .
But as they thought they were closing the net on the wolf, he would slip through the cracks and off the radar again.
The search grabbed national attention as the community became involved in the search effort.
Dozens of calls were made to authorities in the days after Neukgu’s disappearance, including some boys who cried wolf – elementary school kids who had mistaken for Neukgu, according to the Chosun Daily.
One resident even reportedly tried to help the search operation by showing up with their own wolfdog.
Neukgu was then seen trotting down a city street in a widely circulated picture, taking authorities far beyond the zoo.
An AI image of the wolf was generated by someone in the public, showing him trotting down a suburban street Credit: AFP
Authorities closed down a local school after the wolf escaped, as a safety precaution Credit: EPA
This however later turned out to be a wild wolf chase as the image was revealed to be AI-generated.
Authorities have since captured Neukgu near the Anyeong Interchange of the Daejeon Southern Ring Expressway in Anyang-dong on Thursday.
He was then transferred back to his enclosure at O-World.
Born in 2024, Neukgu was part of a program at O-World to restore the Korean wolf, which once roamed the Korean Peninsula.
The animals are now considered extinct in the wild.
The elusive wolf has since become a “symbol of independence”, a “wolf that wouldn’t stay caged”, according to creators of the meme coin Neukgu.
In the last 24 hours the meme coin has recorded a trading volume of around £110,000 ($150,000).
Rescuers were searching for the young wolf for a week before finding him Credit: AFP
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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