Khaberni - A Chinese documentary film released in 2017 has once again topped digital interaction, after the story of a woman who rescued a wolf pup from wolves, raised it, and then returned it to the wild garnered about 2.8 billion views on social media platforms in China.
Rescuing an Orphan Pup in the Meadows
The story began when Li Wei found a 5-day-old wolf cub in April 2010 in Zuoqi's meadows in Sichuan Province, after its parents were killed by humans. The little one was hiding in a rocky crevice on a patch of grass.
She named it "Green" after the green color of the meadows, and took it home to Chengdu to care for it with her boyfriend at the time “Yi Feng”, who later became the documentary’s photographer, according to "scmp".
Raised Among Dogs and Humans
Green grew up in Li's home as a real child, made friends with a Pomeranian in the family, learned to howl from the TV, chewed on electric cables, and fished instinctively in the pond.
As Green grew, his fangs became sharper, he began to fiercely guard his food, and howled at night, disturbing the residential neighborhood he was in.
Rejecting Captivity and Choosing Freedom
Li's friends suggested sending Green to a zoo, but she refused after visiting one and seeing wolves pacing endlessly in tight cages, and commented: "Freedom and dignity for Green surpass the value of life itself."
She sold her apartment in Chengdu in July 2010 and moved with Yi Feng back to the meadows to reintroduce Green to the wild after thorough studies of wolf behavior and wildlife rehabilitation programs.
There, Li lived with a Tibetan friend who raises mastiff dogs, where Green learned hunting and cohabitating with dogs, but he picked up the habit of barking like them and spent his days basking in lazy sunbaths.
Li and Yi Feng ventured deeper into the meadows searching for a wild wolf pack to awaken Green’s natural instincts.
A Touching Farewell Moment
Green’s first attempt to join a wild pack failed after being bitten, but in the spring festival of 2011, they met a new pack.
At the age of 9 months, Green stood by Li and Yi Feng on the farewell day, while he watched the pack from a distance. "The nurturing mother" whispered with tears in her eyes: "Go, my son, be brave, I will watch you as you go, you are a child of nature."
The wolf touched his human mother for the last time before walking towards his real family, becoming the first wolf in the world to successfully return to wild after being raised by humans.
The Fate of Green and His Family
Li and Yi Feng returned to the meadows in 2013 to discover that 3 of Green’s cubs were killed by strangulation, gunfire, or went missing, and only one was saved by Li.
Green, who had become the pack leader, unexpectedly met Li and stared at her for a long time from a distance.
In 2020, the Sichuan government established the first monitoring station to protect environmental wolves in Zuoqi, and officially categorized wolves as a second-class protected species in 2021, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison for hunters.
Yi Feng said the last time he saw Green was in 2020 when he was 10 years old, adding: "Born in the meadows and returning his spirit and body to the earth in the end, now every wolf in these plains is called Green."
Wide Echo on Social Media
A comment on social media garnered more than a million likes: "The love and loyalty that humans spend their lives searching for exist in Green's furry head."
For her part, Li has not made any public statements, leaving only a brief comment on a recent post about Green: "I have done all I possibly could and must now vanish among the crowd."
