South Korea captures runaway zoo wolf after weeklong nationwide search

Neukgu, a male wolf born in 2024 and weighing about 30 to 35 kilograms, ended a weeklong nationwide search when officials captured him at 12:44 a.m. near Anyeong Interchange on the Daejeon Southern Ring Expressway. Veterinarians later said his pulse and body temperature were normal, and he was transported back to O-World zoo in Jung District under anesthesia.

The escape on April 8 set off one of South Korea’s strangest public searches in recent memory. Officials said Neukgu dug under a fence and damaged the enclosure before getting out of O-World zoo in Daejeon. Hundreds of officers joined the hunt, backed by drones, thermal cameras and, at times, a tranquilizer gun, as search teams combed areas around Puri Park, Musang-dong and Anyeong-dong.

The search quickly became harder to manage than a single animal rescue. False sightings flooded police and fire officials with calls and tip-offs, while an AI-generated image of the wolf circulated widely online and was later flagged by authorities as fake. Officials asked people to delete the image, warning that misinformation was complicating efforts to track the animal as the search entered its third day.

The incident also forced a safety response well beyond the zoo. Daejeon Sanseong Elementary School was closed during the search, a sign of how seriously authorities treated the risk of a 30-kilogram predator moving through a dense urban area. Neukgu was repeatedly spotted but managed to slip away, including after disappearing during a drone battery replacement and after jumping over a four-meter retaining wall and passing through a capture net.

By April 10, the escape had escaped the realm of wildlife management and entered South Korea’s internet economy. A meme coin appeared, and the country’s president sent a message of concern, turning a local zoo incident into a national fixation. The episode showed how quickly a live animal search can become entertainment, rumor mill and speculative market all at once.

For Daejeon officials, the capture brought relief after a search that exposed the limits of traditional field operations in the age of instant sharing and synthetic media. Neukgu is back at O-World zoo, and the case now stands as a reminder that public safety messaging, animal containment and online verification can no longer be separated.