Jo Cook / Courtesy of Far Eastern Leopards



UK activist to plant seeds of hope near North Korea

By Jung Min-ho

For Koreans, especially young people, it is now hard to imagine tigers and leopards living in the mountains around their cities and villages.

But only a century ago, big cats were objects of dread and the source of many folk tales among the people sharing the Korean Peninsula with them.

The country's last tiger was killed on Mt. Daedeok in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, in 1922. The last leopard suffered the same fate in 1970 on Mt. Yeohang in Hamyang, South Gyeongsang Province.

Now, the Far Eastern Leopards, a London-based nonprofit organization working to conserve the endangered Amur leopards, is seeking to plant seeds of hope for lovers of big cats here.

Jo Cook, co-coordinator for its endangered species program, will start a project to increase the number of Amur leopards ― the species that used to live here ― in Lazovsky Zapovednik, Russia's Far East (RFE), which is less than 300 kilometers from North Korea.

The goal is not to reintroduce Amur leopards on the Korean Peninsula, but in the long run, it could happen, she noted.

"I do believe increased numbers of both tigers and leopards could potentially see them expanding into the Korean Peninsula," Cook told The Korea Times.





Amur leopard / Courtesy of Leopard Land National Park (by Choi Ki-soon)



There are 70 to 80 wild Amur leopards in RFE, and they've been expanding westwards in recent years. "There could well be some living or at least temporarily moving into North Korea," she said.

Her team will use pairs of Amur leopards from the breeding programs to produce cubs under special conditions, where they can be raised without direct human influence. This will either happen in RFE or in specially constructed facilities in zoos. Once the cubs grow big enough, they will be transferred to RFE for more adjustment before being released into the wild.

The process will be repeated using different pairs of leopards in an effort to maximize the genetic diversity of the released population.

Seoul Grand Park, which has aided the organization in its work for several years, will participate.

Cook is confident of its success but said it may take time.

"We believe the reintroduction project could see another population of approximately 90 individual Amur leopards living in RFE, but at this point it is impossible to put a timescale on it as there are so many variables," she said.

Asked whether it would be possible to carry out such a project in South Korea, she said it may not be worthwhile, given the country's current environment.

"For South Korea, I just don't think there is enough suitable habitat to make reintroduction worthwhile. If there is not enough habitat to support a small population, then it is not worth doing because small populations have to endure so many risks," Cook said.

"There is a strong desire from some Koreans to have tigers and leopards reintroduced, and that is great. But realistically, I think we are some way off from even discussing it at great depth. But I would welcome seeing a rigorous survey of the habitat in South Korea as that has to be the first step in any reintroduction plan."