"Protect Endangered Winter Musk Deer" ... Animal Groups and Environment Agency Hold Feeding Event in Uljin

Animal protection groups and local residents are placing mulberry leaves, which the mountain goats have eaten well, on the feeding platform.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Koo Dae-seon] On the 28th, the Daegu Regional Environmental Office held a winter feeding event for Korean goral in the area of Ducheon-ri, Buk-myeon, Uljin-gun, Gyeongbuk, together with the National Institute of Ecology, Uljin-gun, the Korean Goral Musk Deer Protection Association (Uljin Branch), and the Wildlife Federation.

The Korean goral lives in rocky mountains in areas such as Samcheok, Gangwon-do, and Uljin, Gyeongbuk. With the population decreasing every year, currently only about 1,600 individuals remain in South Korea. It is designated as a Class I endangered wild species and Natural Monument No. 217.

Since 2010, the Wangpicheon Environmental Branch of the Daegu Regional Environmental Office has operated feeding stations at 14 major habitats in Uljin and Yeongyang areas every year to prevent winter Korean gorals from dying of exhaustion due to lack of food, supplying more than 1 ton of mulberry leaves annually as feed.

The Daegu Regional Environmental Office will supply more than 1.5 tons of mulberry leaves until April next year to protect winter Korean gorals, and will also conduct anti-poaching patrols, collect illegal traps, and carry out emergency rescue activities such as rescuing and treating exhausted gorals through the Gyeongbuk (Uljin) Goral Conservation Council.

About 10 students from the Ecology Club of Noeum Elementary School in Uljin also rolled up their sleeves and participated in the event, lending a small hand to the protection of the endangered Korean goral.

Choi Jong-won, head of the Daegu Regional Environmental Office, said, "We will work together with private organizations, local residents, and related agencies to continuously carry out Korean goral protection activities and strive to make the Wangpicheon ecological and scenic conservation area the optimal environment for Korean goral habitat."