
(ATR)One of the two species featured as PyeongChang 2018's mascots is living in captivity across the country of South Korea.
The mascots for next winter's Olympic and Paralympic Games include the white tiger named "Soohorang" and the Asiatic black bear called "Bandabi". The two have beenused as symbols of will power, courage and protection and are featured in various Korean folk tales.
The folk tales however do not include the near extinction the black bear is facing today in Korea.The animal is recognized by the half moon on its chest and is known in the region as the "Moon Bear." The bears are being held in over 30 farms around the country and exploited for their bile. In East Asia, the bile is believed to solve numerous health problems from "hangovers to heart disease" according to NPR's Elise Hu.Bear farmers breed these animals in cages for the legal minimum of 10 years before they are eventually slaughtered for the bile in their gall bladder.
The capturing and farming of the "Moon Bear" has put the animal on the endangered species list.
The demand for moon bear bile has subsided causing many bear farmers to close shop "but nearly 800 moon bears still live in caged limbo in their native country," Hu states.
To read more on the original story click here.
Homepage photo: Getty Images
Written by Courtney Colquitt
Forgeneral comments or questions, click here.
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about theOlympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.

Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.

Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.

Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
