One of the most dangerous de facto wildlife preserves in the world is the Demilitarized Zone consisting of a 2.4 mile (4 km) wide strip running along the 155 mile (250 km) border between North and South Korea. It was farmland for over 5,000 years, but it has reverted to its natural state ever since 1953, when most human activity was eliminated from the area with certain narrow exceptions--some covert and illegal, some not.
Despite the presence of minefields, thousands of species of plants, birds and mammals now thrive in the zone, including possibly the rare Korean tiger and the Amur leopard (pictured above).
Naturalists are very concerned that any political reunification of the Koreas would result in the immediate "development" of the area. These naturalists will probably have a long time before actually having to address this issue.
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