National Park Museum, Daejeon: fox exhibition — to 31 March 2027

The red fox vanished from Korea's mountains and is slowly coming back through a restoration programme, and the Korea National Park Service has built a five-month exhibition around it at its National Park Museum in Sutonggol, Daejeon. It starts with the fox's traces in old records such as the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and follows, in images and charts, the restoration work the park service began in 2012. Through the autumn a poetry show and an activity booth run in the garden outside, which makes it an easy stop with children on a walk into Sutonggol valley.

What the exhibition shows

The two words in the title are its two halves. The first uses old written records to show where foxes lived on the Korean peninsula and what they meant to people; the second follows the endangered-species restoration the park service has run, mainly on Sobaeksan. The park service says the aim is to make the case for people and wildlife sharing the same land. Kim Bo-hyun, who heads its cultural resources department, describes the show as an attempt to tell both the recorded history and the restoration effort in an artistic way.

The press release does not say which records or which passages are on display, so details such as the chronicle entries or whether specimens are shown are best checked on site. The museum itself holds about 1,070 natural and cultural objects gathered from the national parks, and the park service reckons a visit takes about 30 minutes.

What is there for children, and until when

The outdoor programme was put together with the Daejeon Children's Literature Society. Some of it runs for a much shorter time than the indoor exhibition, so check the dates before you go.

How far has the fox restoration come

According to the park service, foxes declined sharply in the 1960s through a nationwide rat-poisoning campaign and loss of habitat, and none has been confirmed in the wild since a carcass was found in Yanggu, Gangwon, in 2004. The species is now listed as Class I endangered. Restoration began on Sobaeksan in 2012 and continues by releasing animals born in the breeding facility each year.

Released foxes mostly live around farmland, villages and low hills, so road traffic, snares and traps, and pesticides are their biggest threats — which is why the exhibition puts so much weight on the restoration effort. The figures date from the release and may have changed since.

Before you go

• It is closed on Mondays; when a Monday is a public holiday, it closes the next weekday.
• Admission is not listed anywhere official, so do not assume it is free — check on +82-42-825-3126.
• By bus: from the stop in front of Yuseong Intercity Bus Terminal take city bus 11, 102, 103, 104 or 112; from Daejeon Express Bus Terminal or Daejeon Dongbu Intercity Bus Terminal take bus 102; get off at Sutonggol (park service directions).
• Sutonggol is a trailhead into Gyeryongsan National Park, so the museum pairs well with a short valley walk for a half-day outing.

Getting there, and what to expect if you do not read Korean

From Seoul, the simplest route is an express bus to Yuseong (Yuseong Geumho Express Bus Terminal); the park service's directions say to walk about ten minutes to the stop in front of Yuseong Intercity Bus Terminal and take bus 11, 102, 103, 104 or 112 to Sutonggol. Arriving at Daejeon Express Bus Terminal or Dongbu Intercity Bus Terminal instead, bus 102 runs direct. There is nothing to book: you simply turn up during opening hours, so a foreign phone number is no obstacle. The catch is language. Neither the press release nor the museum's page mentions English panels, an audio guide or English tours, and the outdoor poems and the relay writing booth are Korean-language by nature. What carries over without Korean is the photographs and the story of the fox itself — worth it as part of a day in Gyeryongsan, not as a trip on its own.