Taiwan Mobile Co on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Chiayi branch and the Yushan National Park Headquarters on conservation of Alishan salamanders.
Hynobius arisanensis is an endemic species and has the broadest range of Taiwan’s five endemic salamanders.
It was discovered by Japanese botanist Isajiro Ando in Chiayi County’s Alishan Township (阿里山) in 1921 and last year was listed as a nationally vulnerable species in the Ministry of Agriculture’s Red List of Amphibians of Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Nature Conservation Agency’s Chiayi branch
Taiwan Mobile since 2023 has been involved in salamander conservation in collaboration with the conservation agency, the National Park Service and a research team led by Ju Yu-ten (朱有田), a professor of animal science at National Taiwan University.
It signed the MOU with the Chiayi branch and another on Friday with the Yushan park headquarters to enhance maintenance of the mountain habitats of Alishan salamanders, and support research and education programs.
Alishan salamanders prefer chilly, damp environments near streams or rivers at an altitude of 2,000m or higher, the Yushan headquarters said.
They long faced a struggle to survive, including due to habitat fragmentation, as they are extremely sensitive to small changes in climate and environmental conditions, it said, adding that the population is small.
Taiwan Mobile used its Internet of Things technology to assist Ju’s research team to control the humidity and temperature of the animals’ habitat, as well as to collect data, Taiwan Mobile Foundation chief executive officer Iris Liu (劉麗惠) said.
“We provided them with the network for automatic data transmission, so researchers would not have to climb 3,000m up the mountain just to record the data,” Liu said.
Taiwan Mobile also donated barrels of liquid nitrogen and minus-80°C freezers to aid the preservation of specimens, as well as samples collected from Formosan black bears, leopard cats, Formosan sambars and Formosan sika deer, the headquarters said.
Research indicates that the salamander population in the region has been stable for the past decade thanks to thoughtful trail route planning, Ju said.
Given that salamanders are amphibians that tend to spawn near underground streams on mountainsides, the research team covered soil with wood chips near the Jiemei Lakes (姊妹潭), he said, adding that a nearby site has a stable Alishan salamander population.
“Within half a year, we found salamanders hiding beneath the wood chips,” Ju said.
The wood chips were used to bolster salamander habitats by creating more space for them to hide and gather food — typically insects and invertebrates, the Chiayi branch said.
To help protect the habitats, visitors to the area or Yushan National Park must stay on marked trails and refrain from lifting items that cover the land such as stones or logs, it said.
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