amyasleigh
Abominable Snowman
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2009
- Messages
- 813
This concerns "known species thought locally extinct", rather than "uncatalogued mystery species" -- but I was intrigued to find it cited recently; on another message board, of the "about everything under the sun" variety.
The species concerned is the Siberian / Korean tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), believed to have been for a fairly long time, extinct in the wild in South Korea, and likewise, all-but, in North Korea. It turns out, though, that there is (or anyway, has lately been) an enthusiastic South Korean, seemingly amateur, naturalist who is convinced that a few tigers still inhabit the Demilitarised Zone between the two mutually antagonistic Koreas -- a basically people-less, heavily fenced-off, strip of land 4km. wide, following the whole 250km. border. From the news item's text, it would seem that his opinion is essentially based on a "hunch"; but he and his faithful followers spend much time on the southern edge of the DMZ, questing and "tracking" in the hope of tiger encounters. Rather sadly, the item is dated 2010: there having seemingly been no success on the part of this group, in the half-decade since then (at least, none heard of by me), would look none too hopeful re tigers hanging on in this location.
As the item recounts, Korea's DMZ has become a rather fine unintentional (and presumably un-visitable in detail) nature reserve, home to various rare species: including by some accounts, black bears and leopards. As quite often found in locations of military activity of one kind or another, including training areas: essentially no humans there, except for the military-type ones when they're doing their stuff -- the fauna seem quite readily to "get", that the alarming human activities and noises are not targeting them, and that in the main they will be left alone.
My computer skills are not great, and I don't seem to be able to post an actual workable link to the piece: have to resort to: --
Google "Korean tigers".
About the sixth "hit" down on the first page, reads: "Tracking tigers in Korea's DMZ - CNN.com". Click on that.
The species concerned is the Siberian / Korean tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), believed to have been for a fairly long time, extinct in the wild in South Korea, and likewise, all-but, in North Korea. It turns out, though, that there is (or anyway, has lately been) an enthusiastic South Korean, seemingly amateur, naturalist who is convinced that a few tigers still inhabit the Demilitarised Zone between the two mutually antagonistic Koreas -- a basically people-less, heavily fenced-off, strip of land 4km. wide, following the whole 250km. border. From the news item's text, it would seem that his opinion is essentially based on a "hunch"; but he and his faithful followers spend much time on the southern edge of the DMZ, questing and "tracking" in the hope of tiger encounters. Rather sadly, the item is dated 2010: there having seemingly been no success on the part of this group, in the half-decade since then (at least, none heard of by me), would look none too hopeful re tigers hanging on in this location.
As the item recounts, Korea's DMZ has become a rather fine unintentional (and presumably un-visitable in detail) nature reserve, home to various rare species: including by some accounts, black bears and leopards. As quite often found in locations of military activity of one kind or another, including training areas: essentially no humans there, except for the military-type ones when they're doing their stuff -- the fauna seem quite readily to "get", that the alarming human activities and noises are not targeting them, and that in the main they will be left alone.
My computer skills are not great, and I don't seem to be able to post an actual workable link to the piece: have to resort to: --
Google "Korean tigers".
About the sixth "hit" down on the first page, reads: "Tracking tigers in Korea's DMZ - CNN.com". Click on that.
