Despite the shadow of the deadly avian flu virus, this year's Taipei Birdwatching Fair kicked off yesterday at Guandu Nature Park, as birdwatching groups and conservationists from 10 countries worldwide joined the two-day event to promote the joys of birdwatching and assure the public of the safety of such activities.
The panic over the avian flu, however, has dissuaded many bird lovers from participating in the event this year and caused a 70-percent slump in the crowd from last year.
While disappointed by the number of participants this year, Liu Hsin-bai (劉新白), director-general of the Wild Bird Society of Taipei (WBST), remained passionate about the annual fair hosted by the organization as he greeted participants and patiently clarified some "unjustified fears" and "misunderstandings" about birdwatching to the media.
"Birdwatchers keep dozens of meters away from wild birds, and so it is almost impossible to be infected with the avian flu ? It is actually safer and healthier to participate in such outdoor activities than to stay home," he said.
Liu said that the Agriculture Council and several birdwatching societies in Taiwan have been working together since 1997 to monitor the activities of migratory birds and take dropping samples. So far they haven't found any evidence of the avian flu virus in wild birds.
"We are doing our job as front-line monitors, and I think it is the government's responsibility to take preventive measures, provide correct information, and not to discourage people from attending activities such as these," he added.
Echoing Liu's comments, Siraprapa Boonlue, a representative from the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand, said although there were two to three human deaths from the avian flu last year in northern Thailand, birdwatching activities have continued unaffected in national parks and wetlands.
"We work with universities to monitor wild birds, and hold seminars and training to disseminate correct information," she said.
In Israel, which has a reputation as one of the best birdwatching destinations with over 540 species migrating to the country every year, the avian flu even helped boost birdwatching activities.
"We [ecologists and ornithologists] spoke to the press and managed to make things clear very early ? We explained that there is absolutely no danger involved in watching wild birds, and we even managed to promote [birdwatching events] through the media," Yoav Perlman, an ornithologist from the Israel Ornithological Center, told the Taipei Times.
Willie Foo, secretary of the bird group at the Nature Society of Singapore, said the Singaporean government has put a great deal of effort into preventing an avian flu outbreak by applying strict rules to the poultry industry and even buying back domestic birds from private poultry farms.
"But birdwatching is different because it is very unlikely that birdwatchers will get infected with the flu, and we will continue to provide the public with correct information," he said.
About 1 million migratory birds fly to Taiwan every year, and the Taipei Birdwatching Fair had attracted more than 6,000 visitors on average in previous years. The 2005 Taipei Birdwatching Fair ends today, but related events run until December. For more information, visit the WBST Web site at www.wbst.org.tw, Guandu Nature Park at www.gd_park.org.tw or call 02-2858-7471.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching