KOREAN MOVIES: SBS Documentary "Asiatic Black Bears Returned to Nature"

SBS Documentary "Asiatic Black Bears Returned to Nature" is about a restoration project of Asiatic Black Bears that are nearly extinct in Korea. This project was started in 2001 by Korean Ministry of the Environment and SBS. It took ten years to make this documentary and it is a first trial of filming the restoration project for endangered species in Korea.Over the years, Asiatic black bears have become too friendly with humans so that they were confused how they should react to humans. To save the bears from going extinct, it was claimed that they needed to be returned to the wild nature. The restoration bears released on Mt. Jiri since 2001 and have been observed.

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Each year, six bears are released and they eventually learned how to survive in there by finding preys and places to sleep by themselves. They even became to go into hibernation in the wild. In 2009, for the first time, two Asiatic black bears succeeded in breeding in the wild. A view of the mother bear protecting her cub was quiet impressing. It showed that the mother's love is a universal thing that it doesn't really differentiate between human and animal.
While all the bears went into hibernation, the cave that observed mother bear and her cub were staying got too cold. The mother bear went out and gathered dead leaves to cover her baby bear. However, the environment in the cave got worse and worse. The baby bear can die if it gets separated to its mother for more than ten minutes due to hypothermal reaction. Thus, it is very dangerous for the mother bear to go outside by herself during winter since she does not get enough nutrition to wonder around in that weather. Despite of all these risks, the mother bear still left the cave to find another safer place for her baby bear. Sadly, the observation team found her dead outside. They hurried to find the baby bear to save it, but it was already dead when they found it.
Near extinction, the Asiatic black bears are now on the road to recovery. It is certainly an opportunity for wildlives and humans to coexist in Korea again. During the past 10 years, it may seem like it hasn't done much yet, but still the decade long efforts have helped to change people's awareness of the seriousness. This efforts of supporting the endangered animals need to be continued on.
SBS are recruiting supporters of Asiatic Black Bears. Many Korean celebrities are already participating.

Here is a Korean News Clip Featuring the very cute Asiatic Black Bears.