In the mid-1980s, a small group of farmers brought in around 10 deer to Anma Island, off South Korea’s southwestern coast. Their goal was to raise the animals for their antlers, which were considered valuable in traditional medicine. Nearly forty years later, the descendants of those 10 deer had become an unmanaged population numbering around 1,000. Meanwhile, approximately only 150 people remain on the island, according to a 2024 Reuters investigation.
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