Expired spoonbills to be given fresh lease on life

The bodies of dozens of black-faced spoonbills who died of botulism over the past few weeks will be preserved for research and educational purposes, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.

Since Dec. 9, 71 of the endangered birds have died of botulism at the Chiku Lagoon in Tainan County, where they spend the winter from October to April.

Seventeen other spoonbills infected with C. botulinum toxin are in a stable condition after receiving treatment.

Council officials said yesterday that dozens of the dead birds, currently being stored at National Taiwan University and Tainan County Livestock Disease Control Center, would be preserved.

Fang Kuo-yun (方國運), head of the Resources Conservation Division of the council's Forestry Department, said yesterday that researchers would be able to dissect some of the bodies to investigate the bird further.

The council will also professionally preserve some of the bodies for presentation.

"We hope such precious specimens of the bird will be eventually stored at museums where the management is as good as at world-class museums, such as the one run by the Smithsonian Institution in the US," Fang said.

Fang said that the council would soon discuss the issue with the Tainan County Government.

Fang said there were many ideal places for the specimens to be stored, such as the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung and the council's Taiwan Forestry Research Institute.

Meanwhile, the Tainan County Government refused to confirm a report in a Chinese-language newspaper that residents near the lagoon had been eating spoonbills.

"We've never heard of such things," Lee Tuey-chih (李退之), director of the county's Information Division, told the Taipei Times yesterday.

The county government and the council will host an international conference in March to examine the nation's efforts to rescue the birds and to come up with strategies to prevent similar tragedies.

Spoonbill Action Voluntary Echo (SAVE) International, a project of the US-based Earth Island Institute, is helping to organize the conference through its international networks.

Yang Jiao-yen (楊嬌豔), from Taiwan Chapter of SAVE International, told the Taipei Times that conservation experts from several countries including Hong Kong, Japan and the US have been invited.

Yang said said one of the topics for discussion would be local governments' experience in protecting the habitats of the birds.