Zoologist draws family tree of wild black bears
Zoologist Jang Kyung-hee speaks in her lab at the Species Restoration Technology Institute in Gurye, South Jeolla Province. / Courtesy of Species Restoration Technology InstituteBy Kim Se-jeongSince April last year, zoologist Jang Kyung-hee, 31, has been collecting the data of 31 Asian black bears living on Mt. Jiri in the southern region of Korea to create a family tree.Jang roams the mountain peaks in search of hair and excrement samples, from which she extracts the bears’ DNA and then analyzes the genetic information in the lab.“Using the DNA I have accumulated, I can figure out the parents of a new-born bear,” Jang told The Korea Times. The samples also allow her to check the health of the bears.Among the 31 bears, 15 were brought to the mountain from Russia, China and North Korea by her organization, the Species Restoration Technology Institute (SRTI). The rest were born in the wild.“It’s possible that there are more bears wandering around that we haven’t checked yet,” said the zoologist.Since the restoration project began in 2004, the b
Sep 10, 2014By Kim Se-jeong