Asian black bear
Biologically and morphologically, Asiatic black bears represent the beginning of the arboreal specializations attained by sloth bears and sun bears. Asiatic black bears have karyotypes nearly identical to those of the five other ursine bears, and, as is typical in the genus, they have 74 chromosomes. From an evolutionary perspective, Asiatic black bears are the least changed of Old World bears, with certain scientists arguing that it is likely that all other lineages of ursine bear stem from this species. Scientists have proposed that Asiatic black bears are either a surviving, albeit modified, form of "Ursus etruscus", specifically the early, small variety of the Middle Villafranchian (Upper Pliocene to Lower Pleistocene) or a larger form of "Ursus minimus", an extinct species that arose 4,000,000 years ago. With the exception of the age of the bones, it is often difficult to distinguish the remains of "Ursus minimus" with those of modern Asiatic black bears.
Asian black bear
In Korea, most of the black bears live in the broad-leaved forest of the alpine region, more than 1,500 meters north of Jirisan. Korean National Park Service announced on April 15, 2018 that eight mother bears gave birth to eleven babies. Six mother bears living in the wild gave birth to eight babies. Two mothers that were being taken care by the nature adaptation training center in Gurye, South Jeolla Province gave birth to three babies. Now there are 56 black bears living in the wild of Jirisan. If the Korea National Park Service release three cubs born in natural adaptation training centers at September this year, the number of black bears living in the wild will increase to 59. As a result, the restoration of the target of 50 black bears, or the minimum remaining population, will be achieved two years earlier. It was a goal by 2020. Their next goal is to expand and improve the habitat and to increase the genetic diversity of the black bears in Mt. Jiri