A rare and endangered Asian black bear was photographed in Korea's DMZ, providing evidence that wildlife is making the uninhabited zone home. Boarder guards had reported seeing black bears, but this is the first corroborative evidence.
[photo] Camera traps were placed in the DMZ by South Korea's Institute of Technology. The reoccupation of the 155 mile long and 2.5 mile wide zone, heavily fortified by wire, electric fencing, cameras, mines and guard towers, by wildlife is another example of nature's ability to recover from man's inhumanity. The exclusion zone around Chernobyl is another prominent example. The bear is young weighing 25 to 35 kilos and is believed to be the offspring of bears inhabiting the area for a long time.
South Korea's government says there are over 100 endangered species living in the zone, which is becoming a tourist attraction as the only remaining 'iron curtain' of the Cold War. About 6.5 million visitors come to peek into the hermit kingdom of North Korea. South Korea has plans to convert the strip of land into a ecological reserve, and is building hiking trails into the DMZ near the border towns of Cheorwon and Paju.
The zone was cut off from human habitation and development in 1953 at the end of the Korean War, so it has become a pristine nature reserve despite the continuous human hostility across the armed barriers
[photo]; although land mines around the armistice site of Pamunjon were
cleared last year by joint agreement. About 5,000 species live in the DMZ in peace, including the very rare red crowned crane and endangered black spoonbill. It is possible that the extremely endangered Amur leopard has also found refuge in the DMZ, but sightings could have been mistaken the Eurasian lynx.
