Disappearing Species

[Anchor Lead]

Korean woodpeckers are known to exclusively inhabit the Korean Peninsula. But Korea's indigenous bird has vanished completely and cannot even be found on the list of endangered species in Korea. It's tragic that many more species in Korea are on the verge of going the way of Korean woodpeckers.

[Pkg]

A black bird with a crest of red feathers on its head ceaselessly pecks at the tree with its long beak. It is a Korean woodpecker, which is indigenous to the Korean Peninsula. But sadly it hasn't been spotted for nearly 30 years now.

[Soundbite] Seo Jae-hwa(Ministry of Environment) : "Written records say it was spotted in 1981 for the last time. But we confirmed through verbal testimonies that it was last seen in 1988."

Recently, the Ministry of Environment had to officially confirm the extinction of the Korean woodpecker and removed the species from the list of endangered animals. Multiple air bubbles are attached to the body of this insect. This is a diving beetle, which is equipped with an air tank inside the body, enabling it to dive in the water for over four minutes. In the old days children used to catch diving beetles in the nearby streams, but that memory is fading as the diving beetle has become an endangered species. The indigenous rock pigeon, replaced by imported pigeons, has also become very rare these days. This is an air-breathing land snail, the first live one to be recorded on camera in 2010. And this is a Kori salamander, a worldwide rare species that used to live only in a certain area in Busan. Both of these creatures have been entered on the list of endangered species.

[Soundbite] Seo Jae-hwa(Ministry of Environment) : "The number of habitats and animals shrank dramatically due to destruction of habitats or inadequate protection by humans."

Over the past five years, 25 new species have been added to the Environmental Ministry's official list of endangered wild animals in Korea, bringing the total of endangered species to 266.