A male “liger” cub — an illegally bred cross between a male lion and a tigress — died on Friday, with another listed in critical condition, an animal shelter said yesterday.
Pei Jai-chyi (裴家騏), director of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology’s Protected Animal Rescue Center in southern Taiwan, said the two ligers were in poor condition when they were brought to the center on Monday.
“The two ligers were obviously underweight and had weak immune systems when they arrived,” Pei said.
He said the animals have a poor chance of survival and are also prone to genetic problems.
“Ligers usually suffer from genetic problems due to the cross-breeding of the two species, putting the cubs in a dangerous situation from the moment they are born,” he said.
He added that the two cubs had been in intensive care since their arrival, which meant there had been no opportunity to conduct health checks on them.
Pei said the male cub was sent for an autopsy after it died and was found to have accumulated fluid in its lungs. It also had a distended kidney and spleen.
They were two of three ligers born to a tigeress in a private zoo in southern Taiwan. One of the cubs died of hypothermia shortly after birth, while the remaining two were confiscated and taken to the center for intensive care.
Huang Kuo-nan (黃國男), the owner of the zoo in Tainan County, has been accused of violating the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) and fined NT$50,000 (US$1,565) for allowing the animals to breed, an amount criticized by an animal protection group as being “too little to pay for such illegal behavior.”
Commenting on the case, Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said he found the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) decision to relocate the cubs inappropriate as Huang, the original owner, has years of experience taking care of the animals and knows how to take care of them.
If the COA had informed him prior to the decision, he would have insisted on not relocating the cubs, Su said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
RSS