Ticks were collected from 35 animals from 5 provinces and 3 metropolitan cities during 2012. Ticks also were collected by tick drag from 4 sites in Gyeonggi-do (2) and Jeollabuk-do (2) Provinces. A total of 612 ticks belonging to 6 species and 3 genera were collected from mammals and a bird (n=573) and by tick drag (n=39). Haemaphyalis longicornis (n=434) was the most commonly collected tick, followed by H. flava (158), Ixodes nipponensis (11), Amblyomma testudinarium (7), H. japonica (1), and H. formosensis (1). H. longicornis and H. flava were collected from all animal hosts examined. For animal hosts (n>1), the highest Tick Index (TI) was observed for domestic dogs (29.6), followed by Siberian roe deer (17.4), water deer (14.4), and raccoon dogs (1.3). A total of 402 H. longicornis (adults 86, 21.4%; nymphs 160, 39.8%; larvae 156, 38.9%) were collected from wild and domestic animals. A total of 158 H. flava (n=158) were collected from wild and domestic animals and 1 ring-necked pheasant, with a higher proportion of adults (103, 65.2%), while nymphs and larvae only accounted for 12.7% (20) and 22.2% (35), respectively. Only 7 A. testudinarium were collected from the wild boar (6 adults) and Eurasian badger (1 nymph), while only 5 I. nipponensis were collected from the water deer (4 adults) and a raccoon dog (1 adult). One adult female H. formosensis was first collected from vegetation by tick drag from Mara Island, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do Province.

The water deer (Hydropotes inermis) is one of the rarest species of deer in the family Cervidae. Only two subspecies exist in East Asia, and few studies have examined the genetic characteristics of the species. Here, we investigated the genetic diversity, phylogeny and population differentiation of the Korean subspecies (H. inermis argyropus). Seventeen mitochondrial D-loop haplotypes (822 bp) were detected and analyzed from 107 individual samples, together with a Chinese subspecies (H. inermis inermis) haplotype. The genetic diversity of the Korean subspecies is lower (π = 0.756%, h = 0.867) than that of the Chinese subspecies estimated in a previous study. This low genetic diversity may result from historical anthropogenic disturbances and/or a founder effect during the glacial period. The phylogenetic tree and median-joining network showed no location-specific distribution of D-loop haplotypes, but revealed two major lineages, A and B, of water deer. The A and B lineages were separated from each other at the beginning of the Pleistocene era (2.1-1.3 million years ago), with a genetic divergence of 1.332 ± 0.340%. The genetic divergence within lineages A and B was 0.525 ± 0.167% and 0.264 ± 0.113%, respectively. This suggests that climate change affected the division of the two lineages. Water deer sampled from the three Korean regions (26 locations) were slightly distinct in their genetic structure (AMOVA: F ST = 0.28416, P < 0.00001; Φ ST = 0.19239, P < 0.00001). Such slight population differentiation may be derived from differential dispersal ability in males and females. The use of genetic markers, such as nuclear microsatellite and Y-linked DNA markers, and samples collected from various localities in East Asia should improve our understanding of the water deer's genetic characteristics.

Bean geese (Anser fabalis) and Greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) are the dominant wintering waterfowl in South Korea. Although they are commonly observed in estuaries and rice fields during the winter, the diet composition of the geese during the winter has rarely been studied. In this study, we provide the results from preliminary analyses on the diet of these two geese species overwintering in Daebu Island of South Korea. We used a total of 13 fecal samples from Bean geese (n = 4) and Greater white-fronted geese (n = 9), and performed a BLAST search for the sequences obtained from 87 clones (n = 36 for Bean geese and n = 51 for Greater white-fronted geese). The diet of Bean geese consisted of five families of plants: Caryophyllaceae (75.0%), Poaceae (13.9%), Asteraceae (5.5%), Polygonaceae (2.8%) and Cucurbitacea (2.8%). On the other hand, the diet of Greater white-fronted geese consisted of 6 families of plants: Poaceae (74.5%), Caryophyllaceae (9.8%), Solanacea (5.9%), Portulacaceae (3.9%), Lamiaceae (3.9%) and Brassicaceae (2.0%). We found that plants of the rice family (Poaceae) are important in the diet of wintering geese, especially for Greater white-fronted geese. This knowledge can be used to establish conservation strategies of the geese overwintering in South Korea.