earticle

영어

Once flourished across the Korean Peninsula, Amur leopard (Panthera pardus oritentalis) vanished from South Korea in late 20 century, and only 70 individuals survive in China-Russian border in a brink of extinction. With its ecological and cultural importance, its reintroduction to South Korea has been discussed. However, the reintroduction of large carnivores demands a considerable amount of time, money and human resources with handful successes and thus needs a careful and systematic approach in the planning. In our study, we used the Open Standard for the Practice of Conservation to identify biophysical indicators which help to assess the feasibility of the leopard restoration in South Korea. For the three conservation targets, Amur leopards, leopard prey, and habitat, of the restoration, we selected key ecological attributes for respected targets. Then, we identified one to four indicators for each key ecological attribute and 12 biophysical indicators in total based on the Amur leopard reintroduction program in the Russian Far East. The indicators include the number of breeding females for the population size of the leopards, roe deer density for major prey density, and connectivity for the habitat fragmentation. The viability assessment based on the indicators revealed a good ecological potential of the leopard restoration as well as uncertainties from research gaps. Although not all necessary information is available at this moment, our study provides a good starting point to understand the requirement of Amur leopard restoration in South Korea. Follow-up research is needed to focus on information gaps found during this study.