Rooks are lined up on utility lines in Jeju Island on Feb. 18, 2022. (Yonhap)
JEJU, Feb. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — With hundreds of rooks being captured every year on the southern resort island of Jeju due to the damage they cause to agricultural crops, voices are growing to find ways to coexist with the birds rather than capturing them.
On Udo Island, one of the small islands off the east coast of Jeju Island, the Jeju city government recently captured and incinerated more than 250 rooks.
The city government decided to capture rooks since they damage agricultural crops such as barley, chives and garlic during their stay from October to April.
Under the current legal enforcement framework, rooks are designated and managed as ‘harmful wild animals’ since they flock together and damage agricultural crops.
Nonetheless, voices are growing over the need to find a way to coexist with them if it’s impossible to change their habit of spending the winter in South Korea.
The Ulsan City Government, for example, created a forest on 125,000 square meters of land around the Taehwa River where about 100,000 rooks visit every year and drove them towards selecting the forest rather than urban areas.
Accordingly, the damage caused by rooks in urban areas decreased naturally.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
