Case studies of the history and politics of wild canid restoration in Korea

Wild canids were historically abundant in Korea; however, the gray wolf, dhole, and red fox were extirpated during the twentieth century. The causes varied. “Pest control” during the Japanese occupation, ecological destruction during wars, disease epizootics, and “vermin control” after the Korean War contributed to the complete demise of wolves. The fox had succumbed to unregulated hunting, rodenticides, habitat loss, and disease epizootics. The dhole was naturally rare; its extirpation from northeastern Asia including Korea is not established. Although the wolf and fox are extirpated, the Korean government still lists both as endangered species to facilitate the recently implemented restoration programs. Restoration will face the challenges of importing genetically diverse populations and the critical loss, fragmentation, and alteration of peri‐urban habitats. The overall social support for these efforts is not clear: it may be low because of changes in social mores or simply an unintended consequence of land and water use choices and policies that people may not perceive in everyday life. In this critical analysis, we postulate that the current restoration programs are misdirected toward inappropriate species and likely employ outdated techniques. We propose that a reallocation of restoration efforts and resources to populations of existing rare or threatened species would be more ecologically beneficial with higher probabilities of success. We recognize that there can be good reason to restore the upper trophic levels, especially keystone species, but are concerned that the impetus is more about focusing on charismatic megafauna rather than pragmatic choices more likely to be effective.