Korea is planning to bring in Siberian Tigers from Russia to prevent the genetic isolation of local tigers.
The Ministry of Environment said it officially requested that Russia donate three Siberian tigers, two males and a female, at a joint environmental committee on Oct. 30 in Moscow, Russia. The request was made during the two countries' biennial conference promoting cooperation on environmental issues between the two countries.
"We are ready to discuss details with Russian authorities," a ministry official who participated in the committee said. Korean tigers have long been extinct but efforts are being made to bring in tigers from overseas. All of them remain in captivity.
The request was first made when Vice Environment Minister Lee Byung-wook asked a Russian high environment official for Siberian tigers when he visited Korea in May.
He made the request since some 20 tigers in Seoul Zoo are all from the United States and North Korea.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying, "Donating a few species of Siberian Tiger is what we can and should do," at an environmental meeting in Irkutsk in August. They are to be accommodated in Seoul Zoo. Siberian Tigers once roamed Western and Central Asia, eastern Russia and Korea. But now their habitat is limited to the Amur-Ussuri region in far eastern Siberia.
Russia designated the site as a national park for the protection of Siberian tigers.
Poaching reduced the number of Siberian tigers to below 100 by the 1940s, but their number has risen back to around 1,000 to 500 in the wild and 421 in captivity.
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한국과 일본 국가부도위험 비슷해졌다
