Before industrialization, Korea’s steep, rugged mountains were a perfect home for long-tailed gorals, a species of wild goat dwelling at high elevations from Russia all the way down to the Himalayas.

These small, antelope-like ungulates were often spotted resting on rocky cliffs in mountains throughout the country, where their predators, including humans, couldn’t dare to climb.

But as Korea developed, constructing roads that reached deeper into the mountains, habitats that suit gorals’ shy, timid and isolated nature shrank, leading to a sharp decline in their populations.

Now, just a few hundred are believed to be in the wild in South Korea, sparsely spread along the Baekdu mountain range, which runs much of the length of the Korean Peninsula, and in the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea. The government has classified them as a first-class endangered species.

Last week, four of these rare animals were reintroduced into the wild on Woraksan North Chungcheong Province, as part of efforts to restore their population in Korea.

Three of them had been rescued from isolation in the snow in Seoraksan Gangwon Province, and the fourth was born at the state-run captivity-breeding center.

“The reintroduction is part of an ongoing effort to restore healthy goral populations in the Baekdu mountain range, starting with Woraksan,” the Korea National Park Service, which oversees the goral restoration project, said in a press release.

With the four released, the number of gorals on Woraksan has risen to 38. The KNPS plans to add 12 more ― three each year till 2014, with the aim of raising the population to a minimum self-sustainable level of 50.

Started in 2007, the goral project on Woraksan is the second of such government-led efforts to save endangered species from the brink of extinction.

The first campaign was to save Asiatic black bears, or moon bears, on Jirisan, which began in 2006.

The Ministry of Environment and the KNPS will hold an international symposium on gorals next month, hoping to cultivate domestic and international cooperation for restoration of the globally threatened species.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)