A wolf that had escaped from a zoo in the South Korean city of Daejeon and evaded authorities for over a week was found and recaptured early on Friday.

The two-year-old male called Neukgu was captured at 12.44am near a highway interchange in Daejeon, according to the city government.

Authorities used a tranquiliser gun under veterinary supervision to subdue the wolf.

“We have safely moved him to O-World,” an official involved in the search told Yonhap. “He’s well so far and we are monitoring him until he wakes up from anaesthesia.”

Neukgu escaped on 8 April from Daejeon O-World by digging under a fence. His escape triggered a multi-agency search involving roughly 300 personnel and led to the closure of a nearby elementary school nearby.

The wolf had been spotted several times in the days following its escape but repeatedly eluded capture. Korea JoongAng Daily reported that Neukgu first slipped out of view on 9 April during a drone battery replacement and evaded search teams again on Tuesday after jumping over a four-metre retaining wall and passing through a capture net.

The search had been complicated by over 100 false sightings, some linked to doctored or AI-generated images.

The final operation started after authorities received a tip-off at around 5.30pm on Thursday that the wolf had been seen near a city park. A suspected sighting at around 9.54pm turned out to be a badger, delaying efforts, before Neukgu was located near the interchange at approximately 11.45pm.

Search teams began preparing anaesthesia shortly after midnight, fired a tranquiliser dart at 12.39am, and completed the capture five minutes later.

After his recapture, Neukgu was taken back to the zoo, where veterinary checks confirmed that his pulse and body temperature were within normal ranges. Veterinarians also removed a fishing hook from the wolf’s stomach during the examination, according to Reuters.

The zoo and adjacent theme park had been closed following Neukgu’s escape and would take time to reopen.

After the wolf’s return, Daejeon mayor Lee Jang Woo confirmed that Neukgu had “finally returned safely” at dawn, and thanked residents and officials involved in the search.

He apologised for public anxiety and said the city would “prepare measures for animal welfare and public safety” as it moved to reorganise O-World.

The wolf’s escape had drawn national attention. “I hope no human casualties occur and I pray Neukgu also returns home safely,” South Korean president Lee Jae Myung wrote last week on X.

Neukgu, born in January 2024, is part of a programme to restore the Korean wolf, a subspecies that is classified as endangered and considered functionally extinct in the wild in South Korea.

The subspecies was reintroduced using wolves from Russia in 2008, after the last known wild wolf on the peninsula died in 1997.