Whooper swan “Don’t forget that we live here” on March 25, 2009."

A healing center will be established in Eulsuk Island in Hadan-dong, Saha-gu, Busan for the first time in Korea to cure water birds that are hurt and unable to return to nature. The wild animal treatment center covering 49,587m2 will be built in the Nakdong River Estuary Eco-Center in Busan, starting ground-breaking in April this year and planning to be completed in early July with a view to providing a habitat for water birds and water deer that are too hurt to return to nature. Last year the center received as many as 850 hurt animals, 289 of which were successfully returned to nature. There were 75 animals cured yet left even after they are totally cured.

2011 also witnessed the same results. 730 heads came in, 150 of which returned to nature and 92 of which had been left behind. About 80 birds and heads were unable to go back to nature even after they are cured. The causes varied. A brown hawk owl, which was delivered to the center in July, 2011, had a crash into a building during flight. It narrowly escaped death but badly hurt its wings. Two water deer frolicking around the center were discovered by humans in a bush while their mother went out for food and delivered to the center in May last year. They don’t fear the human hands as they are accustomed to them since cubhood.

They have lost their ability to live alone in nature. Animals can’t join their flocks and herds and remain in the center for many reasons, but it has limitation in space. Unless a species is not overlapped, the center can accommodate up to 90 heads. Euthanasia sometimes is administered due to the lack of space. About 20% have been administered euthanasia due to lack of manpower and space, epidemics, incurability, etc. Kang, Shin-young, a veterinarian at the Center said that this healing center became a space where animals doomed to be given mercy killing could live.

However, he quipped that they might as well live in nature as in the cage from those animals’ viewpoint. The most popular bird in the healing center will be the whooper swan (numbered 09-3-25) that has become a family member for long. The code number 09-3-25 indicates it arrived at the center as the 25th animal that had arrived in March, 2009. It came to the center in May, 2009 with the left wing broken, which had to be amputated during treatment. The Center has a plan to give visitors awareness about the importance of the protection of wild animals by developing a story of why it was wounded, how it underwent treatment, and so on.

It is now thinking about building a monument of the wingless whooper swan as a symbol of the healing habitat. This center will be a habitat for water birds including the whooper swan, mandarin ducks, herons, and egrets, as well as herbivores like water deer. About 1-km long fences will be constructed to keep them safely from weasels, raccoons, and lynx. In addition, two cages will be built to keep hawks and gledes from attacking them.The total project cost will amount to \350 million Won.

[An excerpt from the Busan Daily Newspaper]