[News Today] Safety maps to avoid wild boars

[LEAD]
As winter sets in, wild boars are increasingly venturing into cities and hiking trails in search of food.

To help prevent accidents, authorities have released safety maps highlighting areas in national parks where encounters are most likely.

[REPORT]
A wild boar roams the city streets in the middle of the night.

There's one over there.

A boar that had wandered down into an apartment complex inflicted severe injuries to a man in his 80s before it was captured.

Wild boars usually avoid people, but their activity range expands to downtown areas and hiking trails from late autumn, when food becomes hard to find.

Kim Bok-yeol / Seoul resident
I saw a boar with its piglets on a trail.
Other people also saw them.

Wild boars are especially easy to spot in national parks, where their population is dense because of the well-preserved natural environment.

In Bukhansan National Park, the boar habitat density last year was over 70 percent higher than the nationwide average.

Choi Young-jun / Korea National Park Service
We estimate the boar population at 120 to 140.

Just a few steps away from the trail, it's easy to notice the traces of wild boars having rubbed their bodies against trees.

The Korea National Park Service has created a safety map showing areas in Bukhansan National Park where wild boars are likely to be seen.

The map was created by analyzing the terrain and other habitat conditions, as well as past sighting locations using AI-based machine learning.

The results showed that wild boars are highly likely to appear on four hiking routes, including the Bukhansanseong Course and the Uiam Course.

The national park service plans to create safety maps for other national parks as well.

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