Over 80 percent of animal-related car accidents involve water deer -- rare across the world but common here
The indigenous water deer is the most frequently-killed animal on the roads of South Korea, local traffic authorities said Monday.
A total of 5,300 car accidents involving wildlife occurred from 2020 to 2024, according to the Korea Expressway Corporation, 4,426 of which (83.5 percent) involved water deer. The common raccoon dog, or Asian raccoon dog, placed a distant second to account for 343 (6.5 percent), followed by 277 (5.2 percent) accidents involving wild boars.
The KEC explained that the frequent roadkill of wild deer is due to the large number of the animals living here, because of the lack of its predators.
Around 37.1 percent of the roadkill occurred in May-June, which the agency attributed to the animals' actively moving to find food and raising the young in the spring. Nearly half, or 44.4 percent, of the accidents took place between midnight and 8 a.m. the next morning.
In a bid to prevent collision with animals, the KEC advised drivers to refrain from turning on their high beams or sudden direction changes when driving, and to warn animals and surrounding drivers with their horns when encountering them on the road.
It also advised drivers to warn the following cars after such accidents, taking measures such as turning on the emergency signal and opening the trunk. One should escape to a safe spot and call the call center of the KEC.
Around 3,123 kilometers of fences are built at high-risk areas around the roads nationwide, with the road authorities building new fences each year while adopting a 24-hour monitoring system and safe-crossings to protect animals.
Water deer, a small dear species native to Korea and China, is deemed "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But the government estimates there are about 450,000 of the animals in the country, with some experts estimating the numbers to be high as 700,000 or above, do to the extinction of natural predators.
The species is defined as a harmful wild animal by the Wildlife Protection and Management Act, which means it can be hunted upon receiving the permit from the regional government. Around 150,000 to 160,000 wild deer are hunted each year, mainly due to the damage they inflict on crops.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
