The video of 20-year-old Zhou Xinyue, playing with several wolves and feeding a carnivore with a meat stick, held between her teeth, has stirred netizens, South China Morning Post reports. The young woman from the province of Inner Mongolia in the northern part of China is said to take care of a wolf pack at an eco-farm there. For her unconventional practice, she was dubbed “wolf queen” by the local media.
The outlet cites the Chinese newspaper Beijing Youth Daily that gave several details about this devoted animal keeper, who is not afraid to get close to her predatory inmates. The young woman, who receives $435 a month for her work at the farm, revealed to the outlet that her love for wolves goes back to her childhood. She used to help her uncle to raise these wild animals and worked as a breeder for several years.
“I liked canines when I was little. My family raised a few dogs, and when I visited my uncle and met the wolves, I felt like communicating with them very much,” she said.
According to the outlet, the keeper provides her current pack with everything they need, from anti-parasite-treatment and vaccination to 10kg of various types of meat per day for each animal. Mealtime is arranged in a special area and takes Xinyue an hour.
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“Sometimes they can be naughty, so I have to hit them while feeding. They don’t attack me, but sometimes their sharp claws can scratch me. It is totally unintentional,” she told the newspaper.
Feeding them mouth-to-mouth is not a routine, but the young keeper says she does it from time to time to bond emotionally with the animals.