The number of documented black kites in Taiwan has reached 709, a seven-year high, which is exciting news for conservationists, the Raptor Research Group of Taiwan said yesterday.
The number of the raptors, listed as a second-level endangered species, has fluctuated over the past several years, totaling 272 in 2013, 626 in 2016, 583 last year and exceeding 700 for the first time this year, the group’s data showed.
Shen Chen-chung (沈振中), nicknamed “Mr Eagle,” was the first person in the nation to attempt a formal count of the species in 1992, when there were fewer than 200, group member Lin Hui-shan (林惠珊) said.
Photo: Hsieh Chi-en via CNA
Since the group took over the work in 2013, it has mobilized volunteers nationwide in the fall and winter each year to count the birds in their nighttime habitats, she said.
A total of 555 black kites were recorded by volunteers in September and the count rose to 709 this month, with the greater figure used to represent their findings for the year, she added.
The species had been facing extinction over the past several years.
A bird studies laboratory at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology has since 2013 repeatedly identified the highly toxic pesticide carbofuran and rodent poisons, possibly used by farmers to kill birds and rats eating crops, as a reason for deaths of black kites.
The findings led the Council of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine to end the four-decade-long practice of weekly rat extermination and to impose a ban on carbofuran.
This year’s total remains far from the numbers that allowed for widespread sightings of the species as remembered by older people, Lin said, adding that black kites poisoned to death by pesticides have still been recorded over the past two years.
To prevent destruction of the bird’s habitat by pollution, the group has promoted eco-friendly methods of pest control, such as building resting racks for raptors, as well as improving public awareness about conservation, she said.
The group has teamed up with the university and the Wild Bird Society of Keelung to establish guidelines for black kite protection.
Additional reporting by CNA
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