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야생동물구조센터, 창애에 발목 절단된 야생오소리 구조
Wild badger with broken ankle rescued from poacher’s gin trap

A wild badger caught in a gin trap was rescued by Jeju National University’s wildlife rescue experts, the JNU Wildlife Rescue Center announced Monday (April 12).

Earlier on the previous day, a resident of Songdang Village in the eastern mountain area of Jeju Island saw a wild badger hurting itself thrashing around in a poacher’s gin trap. On receiving the villager’s report, the Jeju Wildlife Rescue Center dispatched its rescue team for the animal, which had been lured into the odor-baited trap. The badger will soon undergo a surgery to get his broken ankle removed, but a long period of time will be needed until the poor animal can return to the wild after the amputation.

A gin trap is a spring steel device designed to lure an animal into a baited trap. When the animal touches the bait, spring operated jaws with a serrated edge automatically crush the anima’s leg bones. Poachers often use the most brutal way of catching badgers by beating the gin trapped ones with a cudgel or a hammer. The gin traps in local mountains in the spring may also threaten the safety of nearby residents.

As badgers stay inactive in underground tunnels during the winter, poachers familiar with the location of badger holes install illegal hunting tools to catch the ones leaving the site after hibernation.

Yoon Young-min, director of the Jeju Wildlife Rescue Center, expressed concerns over the possible extinction of the indigenous badger species of Jeju Island due to the sprawling development of mountain areas and the ensuing exposure of badger holes to the poachers. Relevant authorities should cooperate to regularly remove poaching tools and strengthen the site-centric monitoring activities, he added.