The 3D adventure epic that stars real animals, Wolf Totem, became the highest-grossing blockbuster in China during Spring Festival.

Though there has been some argument on the connotation of the co-production of China and France, almost all the viewers agreed that the wolves performed well in the film.

The wolves were selected from Beifang Forest Zoo in Harbin, capital city of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, by Wang Weimin, the Chinese producer of Wolf Totem.

Wang was assigned a tough task by the film’s French director Jean-Jacques Annaud when he first met the Oscar-winning director in 2010.

Wang’s mission was breeding wolves for the film, which features wolves as the main subject. Jean-Jacques Annaud said he would come back for the co-production when Wang became a qualified wolf breeder.

However, Wang did not have one wolf at all at that time. He began to find wolves in Northwest China, and then Hebei province and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The first challenge for him was determining the species of wolf needed in the film.

In the writer Jiang Rong’s original novel, the animal subject is a pack of rare Mongolian wolves that live on the grasslands.

Wang did not find the Mongolian wolves in this round. What he found were commonly seen jackals and mountain wolves. These wolves are not as bold and overpowering as grassland wolves.

After more than half a year, Wang Weimin discovered that there was a large pack of wolves in Beifang Forest Zoo. He hurried to Harbin immediately with his team.

Wolf pups at Harbin Beifang Forest Zoo [Photo/my399.com]

He was stunned when he saw the wolves in the zoo. They were exactly the Mongolian wolves that he had been looking for. The author of the novel Wolf Totem confirmed Wang’s judgment.

Wang and his team picked out the strong adult female wolves with great shape and gleaming fur after observation in the zoo, hoping they could give birth to whelps.

Then, professional breeders in the zoo helped Wang’s team choose wolf pups for the film.

They chose puppies because they could be expected to feel more comfortable with humans if their first sight after birth was not of their biological mothers but humans.　　

The wolf king in the movie is the offspring of these chosen wolves.

A photo of Wolf Totem with actor Feng Shaofeng [Photo provided to my399.com by Wang Weimin]

The zoo was first located on Hexing Road, and most animals were taken from zoos outside the city and in the wild. Harbin welcomed the first group of Mongolian wolves at that time.

In 2004, the zoo was relocated to Harbin’s Acheng district and got its current name and more than 50 Mongolian wolves “migrated” to the zoo.

In order to simulate the real living environment, Harbin Beifang Forest Zoo planned a 6,000 square meter area for the wolves. It boasts the largest wolf pack in China.