Asiatic black bear, KM-53 (image: Korea National Park Service)
YEONGDONG, June 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The male Asiatic black bear, tagged KM-53 which was born in Jan. 2015 and released on Mt. Jiri in October of the same year, acts in a very unique way.
Its behaviors are against the common sense, in a nutshell.
In the early morning of Monday, KM-53 showed up at Youngdong County, North Chungcheong province and ate all of the honey after breaking four out of six beehive boxes situated along a remote road at the foot of a mountain.
After that, KM-53, just like someone with itchy feet, set out on a wandering life again.
The range of movement for other Asiatic black bears that have been released on Mt. Jiri since 2004 is typically less than 15 kilometers.
KM-53, however, enjoys a roaming life. Due to its unique behaviors, KM-53 was nicknamed “Columbus Bear”, meaning a bear wandering to find a new continent.
It was June 15, 2017 when KM-53 was caught after its first attempt to escape.
The bear was caught around Mt. Sudo in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, indicating that it moved a distance of about 90 kilometers passing the areas of Hamyang and Geochang far away from the Mt. Jiri area.
21 days later, KM-53 was released again on Mt. Jiri.
But after staying there for about a week, KM-54 moved back to Mt. Sudo and was then caught again there.
During this journey, KM-53 suffered a severe traffic accident.
At the Hamyang Junction of the Tongyeong–Daejeon Expressway on May 5, 2018, the bear was hit by an express bus running at a speed of 100-kilometer per hour. Its forefoot was broken due to this accident.
“Unlike other Asiatic black bears, KM-53 appears to have unique and restless curiosity. We constantly track its position to determine where it’s going and why,” officials at the Korea National Park Institute for Biodiversity Conservation said.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
