Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pieman1981]

I was walking in the woods in Bundang on Saturday, and for the first time ever, I saw a wild animal. Im not sure why there is a complete lack of animals in the forests, but thats another matter! Anyhow, the animal in question was pretty much the same as a squirrel, but had long tufts of hair coming off its ears. Its tail was also hairy rather than fluffy. Has anyone ever seen one of these in Korea. I'd really like to know the exact name of it, looked on the net but had no luck.

Any help would be great..cheers!

[ariellowen]

It's a squirrel. Asian variety. You'll need a more informed poster to give you the exact name. But Korean squirrels have little tufts of hair on their ears as you describe. It was a chocolate color?

[captain kirk]

Last one I saw was in black. Unlike North American squirrels they have better 'hands' and carry on more like monkeys. The schoolkids mentioned a 'squirel killer' that is squirrel-like, but preys on squirrels. That one is a bit bigger, and brown. I've seen these, at night, picking at garbage bags like stray cats do, where the town meets the mountain. They have a wave-like, undulating run like a weasel's. This one has a special name (not 'squirrel'/tarrahm'g'), choh-something.

[tfunk]

[Ryst Helmut]

I have been led to believe that Korea does not have squirrels, but they do have chipmunks (I've not seen the former here, but the latter...so I'm inclined to beleive the Korean who told me this).

On a related note, I saw this last month whilst about (it's a Jokjebi):



!shoosh,

Ryst

[Muffin]

Any Korean who says they have no squirrels must go round with their eyes shut. I could see dark brown squirrels scampering round from my kitchen window, especially in the autumn. They also have chipmunks of course, which I only saw when walking up mountains.

[mnhnhyouh]

The wikipedia lists three squirrels in Korea...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mammals_of_Korea#Family_Sciuridae:__Squirrels

h

[tfunk]

[Junior]

Its a red squirrel (sciurus vulgaris).

They come in 2 colors here, red, and dark brown with a white belly.

The latter is common throughout the country. II've seen many in the woods.

*The red squirrel has the most natural color variations of any mammal.

[luvnpeas]

While walking out of the National Museum (the one near Icheon station), I saw a rabbit. Sitting about 10 feet away from the sidewalk, nibbling in the rabbit way. I was very pleased because "toki" is one of the few Korean words I know, and I was with Koreans. I got to show off my language skills.

[Ryst Helmut]

[Junior]

[mnhnhyouh]

[pieman1981]

Yeah, it had a white belly, and was grey so it must be the red squirrel variety. Think they are way more stylish than our counterparts with their tufts of hair![/img]

[tfunk]