The Ministry of Environment (MOE) and the Korea National Park Service (KNPS) announced that three Asiatic black bears in Jirisan gave birth to its cubs, a total of five cubs, from February to March. KNPS confirmed the birth of five cubs while changing the battery of GPS trackers.
The RF-23 which was introduced from Russia in 2007 gave birth to two cubs in wood cave on February 17, the KF-27 gave birth to one cub under the tree root on March 5, and the CF-38 introduced from China gave birth to two cubs in cave on March 11.
The birth of RF-23 cubs was confirmed with their cry due to difficulty in accessing the birth den. The KF-27 cub is a healthy male bear about 30cm in length and 2.9kg in weigh and the CF-38 cubs are female bears weighing 1.8kg and 2kg respectively.
While the RF-23 chose the wood cave as a place to give birth, the birthplace of 16 cubs born in Jirisan was either in rock cave or between the rocks. It seems that Russian and American bears prefer tree holes to give birth and Korean bears cannot find proper trees for delivery due to different environment. It is the largest number of cubs born since 2009 when the first cub was born in wild.
KNPS carried out gene analysis of two Asiatic black bears that were not equipped with a transmitter in last July. One found out to be a baby of RF-05 born in 2007 and another was included in the list of confirmed cubs born by the RF-21 in 2011.
This year marks the 10th year of Jirisan Asiatic black bear restoration project since 2004. The first goal of the project is provide a safe and stable habitat for 50 bears. The head of KNPS said that it will achieve the first goal without difficulty considering the birth rate so far.