Conservationists said that the black-faced spoonbills death toll rose from 11 to 37 as of noon yesterday but the cause may have been bad fish, not the weather.
The advent of a severe cold front over the weekend coincided with the dramatic discovery of dozens of ill spoonbills in the estuary of the Tsengwen Creek Sunday night.
Plummeting temperatures were originally blamed for the birds' illnesses as well as for the deaths of fish in some defunct fish pounds near the creek.
The critically-ill birds were rounded up on Sunday and given emergency medical care. Officials say 55 birds have been saved.
Autopsies were conducted on nine of the dead birds and extracts of their stomach samples were then injected into six white mice, which later died. Fish and water samples have also been tested.
One specialist found a botulinus in the dead fish eaten by the spoonbills which may have killed the birds.
Some conservationists suspect the fish ponds were deliberately poisoned, while others have speculated that the fish died as the result of hazardous wastewater from a nearby industrial zone.
However, the exact cause of death for both the endangered birds and the fish remains to be determined.
By the end of Saturday, 705 of the black-faced spoonbills are estimated to have arrived in Chiku.
At the beginning of the year, international estimates put the number of birds at around 950.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS