|
Plight of laughing thrush infuriates DPP legislator
BIRDS ON THE BRAIN:
The DPP's Tien Chiu-chin called a press conference yesterday to highlight the threat that interbreeding poses to an endemic bird
By Shelly Shan
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Mar 15, 2007, Page 2
A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator was not amused yesterday after researchers announced that the Formosan laughing thrush (台灣畫眉) was under threat as a result of interbreeding with Chinese thrushes.
Yao Cheng-de (姚正得), a researcher at the Council of Agriculture's Endemic Species Research Institute, made the revelation at a press conference organized by DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇).
"Twenty percent of the birds we collected during our field research were crossbreeds. This shows that the birds' gene pool is under threat," Yao said.
Popular pets
Tien said that the news was cause for concern because many people like to keep thrushes as pets because the birds have pleasant singing voices. She added that lax government regulations had allowed breeders to smuggle Chinese thrushes into the country and called on government officials to enforce a stricter conservation policy.
Endemic
Yao's institute says that the Formosan laughing thrush is only found in Taiwan. Other examples of endemic birds include the Mikado pheasant, the white-eared sibia and the alpine accentor.
Li Shou-hsien (李壽先), an associate professor of the life science department at National Taiwan Normal University, was also present at the press conference and supported Yao's findings.
Li said that he had examined 69 Formosan laughing thrushes and found that 14 of them were crossbreeds.
"Typically, the Formosan laughing thrush does not have white eyebrows. But some of those we found did," he said.
"Apparently, these crossbreeds are thriving and continue to propagate," he said, adding that the unique genetic qualities of the Formosan laughing thrush could eventually disappear.
This story has been viewed 1707 times.
|
Print
Mail
wiki links