Hsinchu Zoo and Tobu Zoo in Japan’s Saitama Prefecture on Tuesday established sister relations to cooperate on animal care and protection.
Hsinchu Deputy Mayor Shen Hui-hung (沈慧虹) said she hopes that through the agreement, Hsinchu Zoo would learn from the outstanding wildlife conservation efforts of Tobu Zoo.
The two zoos are to conduct regular exchanges on animal care and conservation, with the Hsinchu facility seeking to boost its soft power and upgrade its animal breeding expertise, she said at a ceremony in the city.
Photo: CNA
The agreement was signed by Hsinchu Zoo director Yang Chia-min (楊家民) and Tobu Zoo director Mitsuo Ban, and witnessed by Shen.
Hsinchu Zoo reopened last month after two years of renovations with a goal to be a facility for life education and animal protection.
Tobu Zoo, which opened in 1981 as the 80th anniversary project of Tobu Railway, is a popular hybrid theme park, comprising a zoo, an amusement park and swimming pools.
It has about 1,200 animals, with some allowed to be fed by visitors.
It is one of the few places where white tigers are displayed and has plans for an observatory area modeled on Hsinchu Zoo’s tropical rain forest gallery to allow people to see them close up, Yang said.
Tobu Zoo has the Heartful Garden, with 410 plant species that grow all year round, and the Palette Garden, which has flowers and fruit trees, including 3,000 Yoshino cherry trees, Ban said.
HASTY PLAN: Instructors must teach in a language they are not fluent in, while students are forced to learn new subjects in a tongue they do not know, teachers said The National Federation of Teachers Unions (NFTU) yesterday urged the government to thoroughly review its Bilingual 2030 policy, saying it has caused problems in elementary and high schools, and might affect the quality of education in other subjects. The government on March 28 changed its original “Bilingual Nation 2030” plan to the “Bilingual 2030” plan, no longer aiming to turn Taiwan into a Mandarin-English bilingual nation by 2030, NFTU president Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) told a news conference in Taipei. Despite the change, the policy’s budget, resources and most of its content remain the same, causing unusual scenes on campuses, he said. Cheng Chi-yi
‘STILL RISKY’: The quarantine requirement for arrivals cannot be lifted, as COVID-19 cases have been rising in Europe and the US, the minister of health and welfare said The government might consider dropping a negative COVID-19 test result requirement for travelers from low-risk countries, but lifting the quarantine requirement for inbound travelers is still risky, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The CECC on Monday said it does not plan to further loosen border controls soon. National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital superintendent Huang Li-min (黃立民) said the “3+4” quarantine policy separates inbound travelers from family members for only three days, which is not enough to block the spread of the virus, so the government might consider changing it to a “0+7” policy. He also said that it might
Taiwanese singer Miu Chu (朱俐靜) passed away over the weekend after a battle with breast cancer, her family announced yesterday. She was 40 years old. The family wrote on Chu’s Facebook fan page that she died peacefully. “Thank you all for your concern. Miu, who was always full of laughter and always brought people positive energy with her music, left us peacefully on July 3,” the family said. The family asked for privacy at this time and said that details of a memorial service would be announced later. Chu was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. She was an alumna of the TV reality show
VIRUS TRACES: Macau is not following international standards, with the WHO saying that COVID-19 cannot be transmitted on packaging, the Council of Agriculture said Macau on Saturday placed a ban on mango imports from a Taiwanese company after traces of the COVID-19 virus were allegedly detected in a shipment, the second such ban in two days. The Macau Municipal Affairs Bureau placed a one-week suspension on the unnamed company’s imports after samples collected from external packaging of its products allegedly tested positive for the nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2. The batches of mangoes from which the samples were collected have been destroyed, the bureau said, adding that the ban is “aimed at protecting Macau residents instead of targeting specific countries or regions.” However, there is “currently no evidence