A Formosan black bear cub found alone in Hualien County in July has been sent to a forest area for skills training, bringing it a step closer to its release into its natural habitat next year, the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau said yesterday.
The cub was on July 10 found walking alone near Nanan Waterfall (南安瀑布) in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) when it was about three or fourth months old, the bureau said.
As the cub’s mother did not show up and it was found to be undernourished, the bureau in August sent the cub to the council’s Endemic Species Research Institute in Nantou County.
Photo: CNA
On Dec. 6, institute veterinarians examined the cub and found that it was 112cm tall and 27.5kg, up from 102cm and 21.3kg on Oct. 23.
They placed a radio transmitter on the cub and moved it to the institute’s forest enclosure for wildlife training, where it has been learning how to hunt for food and avoid natural enemies, the bureau said.
The cub’s rescue and release involved the efforts of the council, police officials, the Taipei Zoo, the Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association and experts from National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University, the bureau said.
As one of the cub’s caregivers, the association last month started raising funds for preparations to release it, conservation documents and follow-up tracking of its adaptation in the wild.
The association used crowdfunding instead of raising funds from a few wealthy people to engage more people in the release project and boost public awareness of wildlife conservation, association founder and NPUST associate professor Hwang Mei-hsiu (黃美秀) wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
Hwang has been nicknamed “Bear Mother” for her long-term involvement in bear conservation.
The association had hoped to raise NT$3 million (US$97,094) by 10am today, but it had raised more than NT$4.3 million as of 4pm yesterday.
Funding for the cub’s care is not entirely covered by the association, given that many agencies have made contributions, a valuable experience that can help improve rescue work for large animals, bureau Conservation Division head Hsia Jung-sheng (夏榮生) said.
The cub might be released in April or May, when it is one year old and more food is available in its natural habitat, Hsia said, but added that scenarios need to be carefully evaluated by experts.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS