SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — A rare video of a wild fox preying on a young water deer has underscored the ecological balance returning to South Korea’s national parks.
The National Park Service released footage Thursday showing the hunt, filmed on June 16 in Sobaeksan National Park. The video also captured a mother deer chasing the fox after losing its fawn. Officials said the footage demonstrates that foxes, once nearly extinct in Korea, are reclaiming their role as top predators that regulate small mammal populations.
An eagle owl that hunted a hedgehog.
Foxes are listed as a critically endangered species, and the government has run a restoration program in Sobaeksan since 2012. The agency explained that fox predation helps slow the rapid growth of water deer populations, indirectly protecting and regenerating vegetation.
The release also included other glimpses of ecological interactions: an eagle owl and a marten hunting hedgehogs and hares, a serow eating azaleas, and Asiatic black bears dispersing seeds while roaming wide ranges. Despite their small numbers, black bears — classified as keystone species — play an outsized role in shaping ecosystems.
A moon bear eating grass seeds.
Officials said the series of recordings shows the food chain in South Korea’s national parks is functioning again, a sign of ecological recovery. Out of 282 endangered species nationwide, 195 — nearly 70 percent — now inhabit these protected areas.
A long-tailed goral eating azaleas.
Image credit: Yonhap, The National Park Service / photonews@koreabizwire.com
