Three men have been selected from more than 1,700 candidates to live with wolves for 72 hours in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.

Xi'an Qinling Wildlife Park published an advertisement on December 2 calling for three men to live with wolves while writing diaries, taking photos and filming videos of the animals, Cnwest.com reported.

The zoo has offered each man 5,000 yuan (US$726) if they successfully complete the assignment.

A total of 1,777 men applied and 12 were selected for an interview, the report said.

Hu Qiwei, Xie Wei and Wang Yongsheng passed the interview process and were selected to observe the wolves.

Hu, 25, is an outdoor tourist guide and speaks fluent English, according to the report.

Xie, 44, is a biologist who graduated from China's Northwest University, spends much of his free time outdoors and is good at surviving in the wild.

Wang, 23, is a reporter from Shaanxi Television. The report said Wang loves the rugged outdoors and is a talented photographer.

They will be sent to a makeshift tree shelter in an area where wolves live. The shelter includes a window for feeding the animals.

(Shanghai Daily December 9, 2008)