| Zoologist Jang Kyung-hee speaks in her lab at the Species Restoration Technology Institute in Gurye, South Jeolla Province. / Courtesy of Species Restoration Technology Institute |
By Kim Se-jeong
Since April last year, zoologist Jang Kyung-hee, 31, has been collecting the data of 31 Asian black bears living on Mt. Jiri in the southern region of Korea to create a family tree.
Jang roams the mountain peaks in search of hair and excrement samples, from which she extracts the bears' DNA and then analyzes the genetic information in the lab.
"Using the DNA I have accumulated, I can figure out the parents of a new-born bear," Jang told The Korea Times. The samples also allow her to check the health of the bears.
Among the 31 bears, 15 were brought to the mountain from Russia, China and North Korea by her organization, the Species Restoration Technology Institute (SRTI). The rest were born in the wild.
"It's possible that there are more bears wandering around that we haven't checked yet," said the zoologist.
Since the restoration project began in 2004, the bears have been checked regularly by using live traps.
The bears that were brought in from abroad were released with a GPS transmitter band around their neck that tracked their location.
When a signal from a trap went off, veterinarians and other staff quickly went to the site, where they anesthetized the bears, ran a quick health check, took blood samples, and put a new GPS transmitter band around their neck. If the transmitter's battery was low on power or dead, they replaced it with a new one, which generally lasts two years.
"But doing this has become more and more difficult because there are now so many. We can't rely solely on live traps anymore," Jang said. Since last year, the institute began installing hair snares across the mountain.
A live trap is a container designed to capture animals alive, whereas a hair snare is a thorny wire designed to capture the animal's body hair.
| Jang Kyung-hee and her team install live snares, such as the snare in blue, and hair snares throughout Mt. Jiri. / Korea Times photo by Kim Se-jeong |
In the past, Asian black bears were in abundance across the Korean Peninsula.
But they fell victim to poachers seeking their gall bladders, which they believed to have nutritional benefits. Consequently, the bears were designated as an endangered species in 1982.
Research in 2002 found that the number of wild Asian black bears in the country was fewer than five.
The Korea National Park Service undertook a bear restoration project; and the SRTI was founded in 2004 to carry this out.
The scientist says the importance of the bear restoration project cannot be overestimated, because "re-growing the bear population is crucial in conserving the biodiversity of the entire mountain," said Jang. All organisms in nature are interrelated, and the destruction of one species causes the destruction of another. "When bears disappear, lower-level organisms can also disappear."
The restoration project began with three pairs of bears from Russia.
"It was a very delicate process, because we had to make sure that they were of the same species as those living in Mt. Jiri. These chosen bears were orphans and young enough to train," Jang said.
Asian black bears have seven different sub-species. The subspecies ussuricus, which is native to the Korean Peninsula, is also found in Russia, North Korea and China.
The bears' genetic information that has been accumulated is also used to ensure the health of the entire bear population.
They are all the same species, but not all genetic information is identical.
"We want them to be genetically diverse, so, for example, when disease hits, more will survive."
The institute plans to bring in more bears from abroad, with a goal to increase the number of bears on Mt. Jiri to 50 by 2020.
The success of the project, however, also depends on the scientists involved.
"Many scientists prefer indoor lab work. They tend to avoid positions that require going out into the field," she said.
Her boss Lee Bae-keun concurs.
"It's not only the bears that have become endangered. Scientists like Jang have as well, and we need to restore them first to continue the project."
Jang majored in biology for her undergraduate studies and in zoological taxonomy for her graduate and doctorate courses at Chungbuk National University.