■ NATURE
Young coati put on display
The first Taiwan-born coati, a mammal belonging to the raccoon family, has been put on public display at the Taipei Zoo, a zoo official said yesterday. A pair of coatis, also known as hog-nosed coons, which are endemic to tropical zones of South America, were introduced to the public at the Taipei Zoo for the first time last July. The pair gave birth to six cubs in January, but five of them died the following day, probably because of their mother’s inability to rear them, Taipei Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) said. “Zookeepers then began to feed the surviving coati,” Yeh said, adding that it was the first time coatis have successfully reproduced in Taiwan.
■ HEALTH
Transplant data released
Several local hospitals are excelling in advanced organ transplant techniques, a Bureau of National Health Insurance official said yesterday. The official made the remarks upon the release of figures on organ transplants between 1997 and 2007. Tzeng Wen-fu (曾玟富), responsible for medical service reviews at the bureau, said the figures showed the average five-year survival rate for heart transplant patients was 69 percent during the period, while the figure for kidney transplants reached 93 percent, with 80 percent recorded for liver transplants and 24 percent for lung transplants. Cheng Hsin Hospital in Taipei was found to have performed the best in heart transplants, with a 79 percent three-year survival rate, bureau figures show. The figures show that the Taipei-based National Taiwan University Hospital recorded the highest five-year survival rate of 96 percent for kidney transplants among the country’s medical institutes, while the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital registered the highest survival rate of 91 percent for liver transplants.
■ CULTURE
Museum hosts touch tours
The visually impaired are being invited to take special touch tours of the National Palace Museum over the next four Sundays, which will give them the chance to touch replicas of well-known artifacts such as the Jadeite Cabbage, the organizer said yesterday. The tours are aimed at promoting art education among the visually impaired, the Welfare Association for the Blind said. They will take place on the mornings of April 12, April 19, April 26 and May 3, and each tour will accommodate up to 12 people, the association said. Those interested can register with the association by calling (02) 2599-1234.
RSS