Super Zoo

Wolf King still lacked the ability to express his thoughts as precisely as humans, but he possessed the intelligence of a child of several years old, was capable of simple reasoning, and had improved intellectually with the help of Suming and Friends of the Animals after some time of interaction.

During this time, he had been howling to Suming, conveying a simple message: freedom.

Freedom is something ingrained in the bones of all wild animals, who would rather endure hunger and cold, battle with nature and humans, and fight other ferocious beasts than to be kept in cages as pets for people's amusement.

The Wolf King and his mate were old and had lived in the zoo for many years. Even if they went to the wild, they most likely wouldn't adapt and wouldn't survive.

But it was different for the wolf cub; it was still young and fully capable of adapting to life in the wild, returning to the vast nature instead of spending its lifetime in this iron cage, being gawked at by people.

No parents in the world would ever wish for their children to be destined from birth to live their entire lives devoid of freedom, trapped in a cage.

Wolf King's gaze was icy as he looked at Suming.

"Old buddy, if you're asking me for a favor, can you give me a more friendly look? Can you stop being so cool and pretending to be Ximen Chuixue all the time?" Suming squatted side by side with the Wolf King on the steps of the Wolf Pen, glanced at the Wolf King, and said with irritation.

Wolves naturally have that chilling gaze and are not good at expressing emotions, even when they look at their cubs, they still wear that same expression.

The fact that the Wolf King 'condescended' to squat next to Suming like a large dog was already showing him a lot of face. Occasionally tourists passing by the Wolf Pen were amazed by this scene and would take out their phones to snap photos.

"Wolves aren't in a good mood today; no pictures! Those who are just hanging around, go row boats and ride fish instead!"

Suming waved his hand to shoo away the tourists like flies, used his spiritual power to communicate with the Wolf King, and tried to calm its mood first. The Wolf King was already in his twilight years and wasn't very healthy; the last thing he needed was to become sick from worry.

In theory, training animals to return to the wild is also one of the responsibilities of a zoo, and as long as there is a suitable method to return the wolf cub to the wild, Mr. Song, the zoo director, wouldn't oppose it.

In the provincial animal protection center, one of the most important duties is 'release to the wild,' which involves nurturing the animals' wild instincts and re-introducing them to nature.@@novelbin@@

'Release to the wild' may sound simple, but it's quite difficult to achieve. It requires a lot of manpower, material resources, and there's a whole slew of follow-up work to be done. The state has limited resources in this regard, so for now, they can only be applied to endangered species such as giant pandas and Baiji dolphins. Prairie wolves aren't at that level and it wouldn't be feasible to spend the effort and money on them exclusively.

Moreover, the act of releasing them to the wild itself carries great risks. Wild animals are naturally suited for the wild environment and can learn survival skills from their parents and pack. However, the wolf cub was born in the zoo, surrounded by 'relatives and friends' who are also captive animals, and the skills for hunting and surviving in the wild are largely forgotten. The little wolf cub has nowhere to learn even if it wanted to.

Rashly releasing the wolf cub into nature could only backfire.

But compared to Wolf King and his mate, the little wolf cub had a natural advantage; it was young, unassimilated by humans, like a blank slate. If trained properly from a young age, there was hope for it to return to nature when it got a bit older.

After leaving the Wolf Pen, Suming went straight to Mr. Song, the zoo director, and shared his ideas.

As expected, Mr. Song's thoughts were similar to Suming's. Although prairie wolves are protected animals, they aren't particularly rare. The zoo wouldn't be greatly impacted whether there were a few more or a few less.

On the contrary, if they could train the wolf cub to return to the wild, it wouldn't only benefit the animal, but it would also be a fine project for the zoo to promote, showcasing their achievements.

"Since you have this in mind, I have no objections. However, there are two conditions, first, you must not harm people or the wolves; second, the zoo currently cannot afford to fund this." Mr. Song said straightforwardly.

"No problem, as long as you give the go-ahead, I have my answer." Suming said.

"How do you plan to start? Reintroduction is a major challenge worldwide, and after years of experiments, even the province's Baiji dolphins haven't been successfully released back into the wild." Mr. Song asked with a bit of curiosity.

Suming thought for a moment and said, "Right now, I don't have any particularly good solutions, but I think that since the wolf pups are just born, they can't stay in the Wolf Pen forever. Otherwise, if they get used to being fed by humans for too long, they will lose their innate wildness, making it even harder to return them to the wild later on."

Mr. Song was somewhat surprised and asked tentatively, "Are you saying, to let the wolf pups out?"

"Yes!" Suming nodded confidently.

"That is a wolf! Don't be fooled by its size now; it won't be long before it can harm people!" Mr. Song said.

Mr. Song said, "Suming, if I have you with them, you should be reassured, right?" Suming said this while casually picking up a water bottle, and with a smile, he filled Mr. Song's cup with water.

Mr. Song hesitated for a long while, finally agreeing reluctantly, "Su, don't cause any trouble. If something doesn't seem right, lock the wolf pups back up immediately!"

"Don't worry, it's just a small wolf! With you overseeing the zoo, even a dragon would have to lie down obediently, let alone any jackals or leopards."

"Quit the fooling around. You're always up to something. Shuijun Lake has just started flourishing, and now, here comes the issue with the wolf pups, keeping this old man on tenterhooks."

"Heh heh, with you at the helm, our zoo's ship won't capsize!"

After getting Mr. Song's approval, Suming felt like he had a powerful talisman in hand, and he went back to the Wolf Pen to pick up the young wolves.

The Wolf Pen was Mr. Peng's territory. After giving him a heads up, Suming took the wolf pups out directly.

The Wolf King and his mate did not behave like most parents whose children were leaving on a long journey, fussing over them for miles. The old couple glanced at their offspring icily through the bars of the cage, then turned away simultaneously and went back to their den as if the pups taken away were the children of someone else.

"Aroo..." The young wolf lay on the concrete steps outside the Wolf Pen, and let out a somewhat pitiful howl toward its parents in the dark distance.

Seeing that its parents were unmoved, the young wolf tilted its head looking at Suming, its little mind unable to understand why mom and dad didn't want it anymore.

Growth inevitably comes with growing pains. Suming snapped his fingers at the little guy, turned, and slowly walked away, casually saying, "Come on, a wolf must learn to grow up on its own..."

Having been walked away from by Suming, and ignored by the Wolf King and his mate, the young wolf stood on the steps, looking around bewilderedly, first this way, then that way.

A gust of wind blew, and the young wolf instinctively shrank its neck, with its small ears suddenly standing up. It looked back at the Wolf Pen with some reluctance as if it had made up its mind, then turned its head, and with its four little legs, it ran towards Suming, picking up speed as it went.