A group of government officials, legislators and international environmentalists will begin a two-day bird-watching tour of Matsu today to observer the Chinese Crested Tern, a critically endangered species which was once believed to be extinct.
The tour came in the wake of a visit made by Robert Butler, the former president of the Waterbird Society, to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"The Waterbird Society has listed Taiwan's Mikado Pheasant and Chinese Crested Tern as the species worthy of recommending to the international community. I would like to arrange the tour to help the local government in promoting tourism," Wang said.
PHOTO: CNA
Peter Candino, a professor emeritus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, told the Taipei Times this was his second visit to Taiwan and he has realized that Taiwan is a place worth visiting for its nature as well as its culture.
"When I first came to Taiwan in 2003, I was very impressed by the mountains, the huge area of forests and the variety of birds. Now I am impressed by the laws that Taiwan has brought in to protect birds from being shot," Candino said.
"Taiwan has been very quick to protect Matsu's islands, where the Chinese Crested Tern visit, which is very good," he said.
The Chinese Crested Tern was spotted in Matsu in 2000 after having been though extinct for decades. The last reported sighting before 2000 had been in 1937 in China, when a flock of 21 birds was reported in Qingdao, Shandong Province.
The Chinese Crested Tern has been called the "mythical bird," because its whereabouts and how it has survived have been difficult to determine.
"We could only say for sure that there were at least five in Matsu the last time we saw them in May," Non-partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Yang Chung-tse (
According to Simon Liao (
"The total number of birds that have been observed and collected is only 37," he said.
Chinese Crested Terns have been found in the Yellow River Delta, Guangdong Province, as well as Sarawark, Malaysia, the Moluccas Islands in Indonesia, Thailand and in the Philippines.
After the bird was spotted again in 2000, the Lienchiang County Government, which administers Matsu, commissioned bird-photographer Liang Chien-te (
The county government also designated eight uninhabited islands as reservations for the birds.
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