Korean Job Discussion Forums

[khyber]

Well, i feel pretty good about my experiences in SKs nature.
so far, my run ins with natural animals (let's not include pets or rats) include the following
1) numerous small snakes, frogs and lizards
2) a group of three (yes 3!) deer scampering across the road as my bus drove by them.
3) Just a couple days ago i heard this weird sort of turkey type sound while i was walking on the mountain behind our house. Then, a few seconds later, I saw a pheasant "fly" about 20ft above my head (sort of jumping off the mountain and flying)....about 30 meters behind it was soem kind of hawk and it was closing fast.
In the end, i could see this hawk put it's claws around the pheasant and as they dissapeared, I heard the dying "gobble gobble" sound...

i feel like i may be alone in this catagory....but i want to hear what anyone else has seen

[Dr. Buck]

Wildlife in Korea:

They are out there, but you have to know where to look.

As for biodiversity and the kinds of animals you can see, there isn't much of a selection.

Here's what you will most likely come across:

Raccoon dogs--half raccoon, half fox-like canine. I've seen three in the last month.

Pheasants are everywhere.

Deer: most likely the one you seen are water deer. About the size of a medium dog. Mostly noctunral and they bed down in brush during the day unless flushed from cover. I've tracked these deer many times out and about. Quite common.

Black squirrels: common.

Otter: found some tracks last weekend near a beach I go to. Very rare. Seen one once about three years ago.

Dolphins: seen them a few times on the Jinhae-Geoje ferry. Always a cool site, but seldom seen.

Whales: found one dead on a Geoje Beach a few years back. The local caretaker chucked the carcass (about five feet long) into a garbage pile. I tried to identify it--still not sure on the exact species. Koreans hunt whales indirectly--as in, it's illegal to catch them but if you do by accident, then you can sell the meat. That's where the meat comes from at the festivals-- a common place where it's sold.

Wild boar: know alot about these wild pigs, but I still haven't seen one in the wild yet. Still looking.

Snakes: they are poached hard for "stamina" reasons. I come across them all the time on my fishing trips. Common site on the sunny side of hills. I've got some cool pics.

Birds: check WBKenglish for that.

Magpies: avian rats. Every Korean boy should be out there with a slingshot killing the fuckers for fun. But they would rather play computer games . . .

Turtles: they are out there. A few. Keep looking. But there is a non-native species that I keep coming across.

Not enought time to post much else, but when it comes down to it--Korea has a shameful history of wildlife destruction. Much of it is related to traditional Korean medicine that uses animal parts. There are only about ten or less Asiatic black bears left in Korea (I seen one!), and that is because Korea is the largest consumer of bear gal bladders (good for health!). The demand is so great, that Korean poachers are killing bears in Canada and the USA and shipping the bear parts back to Seoul. There has been a many arrests of Koreans this spring in the US.

The state of wildlife in Korea is pretty grim, but there's some interesting species out there if you look hard enough.

Time for class.

[kangnamdragon]

Where are the deer? Are they in the mountains?

[rapier]

Wow- you guys have seen a good selection of mammals here. I've seen 3 types of squirrel,- the red, brown and black. Noticed deer in the Chuncheon area...and rats of course. Thought i saw a red fox once, not sure.

Birds are my main interest, I've travelled widely and put in a lot of effort over my time here, I've now seen 208 different species in Korea.

[nolin nae]

[kangnamdragon]

Are there any large cats still wild in Korea?

[Zed]

Dr Buck, where would you suggest is the best place to go to see some of this larger wildlife? It sounds like you are down Geoje/Busan way. I'll admit that I haven't been out in the wilds here anywhere near as much as I could have but haven't seen anything bigger than a squirrel when I have. I'm going to have to make a much more conscientious effort this year.

[Zed]

[rapier]

[oldfort]

I've seen deer and white cranes (not sure of the species) close to the DMZ.

[schwa]

I can add a few mammals. I've seen a wolverine in a creek valley near Osaek (impressive animal). I've spotted weasels. Rabbits, but maybe they were escaped or abandoned pets. Just this monday I encountered my first deer just on the edge of town but unfortunately it was recent roadkill. It appeared young but was already much larger than any dog. Warmer weather now will bring out the bats at dusk again too.

[Zed]

[schwa]

[Dr. Buck]

Schwa: there are no wolverines in Korea. Perhaps what you might have seen is a badger (meles meles), or a raccoon dog, like I mentioned in the above post. But if you seen a marten (Martes flavigula)--then you seen something special and rare.

But I like what you said about the bats--they will be coming out into the night sky and adding some acrobatic beauty as the sun goes down. Cheers to that--a worthwhile salute.

The other day--about seeing the otter tracks--how wonderful and distinct--webbed tracks with a dragging tail. Nice to see those kind of signs making their way.

As for large mammals:

Wolves used to roam in Korea a long time ago. Gone.

Foxes are considered extinct in Korea but I had my . . . doubts. Foxes are smart. Damn smart. Although I would not consider hunting them now, I did I my hard-driving youth and in the process, I learned much about how the human world collides with the world of foxes. Foxes are smarter. And happily they were confirmed the other day in the Hankyoreh on March 25: a fox was found dead, the first in a long time--30 years! Which means there must be a breeeding population of them . . . .
I hope.

Schwa: also, what you might have seen is mustela sibirica, a kind of large weasel.


Back to the big boys:

I mentioned the black bears earlier. Google those key words and you'll find that Korea has the world's worst reputation in the killing of bears.

There's the Eurasian lynx. Not much info about this creature--at least pertaining to the Korean peninsula.

One of my prized posessions are photos of a tree that had been clawed by a large cat. The tree is located in the Gyeongnam province. Still carries the scars. The scratchings are at shoulder height . . . which means that if the lynx didn't so it . . .

The Amur leopard did. And they are thought to be exitinct but a Korean professor published a controverisal paper a few years ago stating the position that there were a few still left in Korea . . . .and if the leopard didn't make those scratchings, then . . . .

A Siberian tiger did.

Legendary.

Read Peter Matthiessen's book, Tigers in the Snow. A good background.

But they are supposedly extinct in South Korea. I like to harbor a few hopes-some romantic and a few grounded in pragmatic observation-but most likely they are gone. Sad, especially for a national symbol that Korea likes to use.

And there's the little cousin--the Bengel cat---felis bengalensis--a little guy a bit bigger than a house cat.

Deer:

the farm deer--Sika deer, farmed for their stamina antlers. Once wild, now domesticated and extinct in the wild.

Roe deer--out there, still trying to figure them out.

Water deer--mentioned earlier, brilliant little deer with dog-like fangs and no antlers. There's one that lives two minutes from my apartment in a gully of brush.

Musk deer--poached to near extinction because of its musk--for the perfume industry and for traditional Korean medicine.

The Goral: my Holy Grail in Korean wildlife.

[intergalactic]

Wow, I'm jealous!

I have seen the squirrels and chipmunks, a toad, a few snakes.
I found a dolphin skull on SonYouDo, but it was too smelly to bring home with me.
In the TaeBek mountains friends and I saw a HUGE cat, possibly one of those mentioned by Dr Buck. Not wildlife, but we also found a straw doll up there that our Korean friend said was used for 'something like a voodoo'. The whole atmosphere up there was strange.

A guy I know has discovered and named a few new species of robber fly.

Friends and I were camping by a reservoir and we saw an enormous mass moving through the water. At first we called and waved because we thought it was human. But we realised the speed it was travelling and it couldn't have been. Then it went under and that was the last we saw of it. A real Loch Ness experience! Perhaps it was an enormous turtle?

Any other cool animals I have seen were stuffed and behind glass in the information-houses at the entrances to national parks, or in traditional medicine clinic waiting rooms.