Wolves entering village in NE China shot dead

Two wolves that entered a village in Harbin, Heilongjiang province on Friday were shot dead, and another was caught and sent to the Harbin Northeast Forest Zoo, the local government said on Sunday.

At around 3 pm on Friday, local police received a report several wolves had been found around Paoshoutun village in the Acheng district of Harbin.?

A group of police officers quickly arrived at the village to secure the scene and urged residents not to go outside.

Several hours later, to avoid hurting local residents the police shot dead two of the wolves. Another was contained in a villager's house.

At around 10 pm, the remaining wolf was caught after staff members from the zoo arrived. It was then was transported to the zoo, which is also a wildlife rescue station.

"It has the obvious external characteristics of a wolf that is a second-class protected animal," said Liu Xiaomi, a zoological science engineer at the zoo. "It suffered no trauma, but is very thin and weak."

"Because of its health condition, it is difficult to determine its age or sex immediately," she said. "And whether it is a wild wolf can't be identified yet."

"Now it is being put under quarantine in a designated area in the zoo until its recovery," she said. "Then related superior departments will decide whether to release it into the wild or keep it in the zoo."