The government is taking lessons from the recent mass die-off of endangered black-faced spoonbills in southern Taiwan and studying the feasibility of forming a permanent team of specialists to deal with similar wildlife conservation issues in the future, the Council of Agriculture said yesterday.
Council Vice Chairman Tai Cheng-yao (戴振耀) made the remarks during an international symposium on black-faced spoonbills held in Tainan County.
Tai noted that despite strenuous efforts to save them, 73 black-faced spoonbills have died from botulism poisoning since the first reported cases Dec. 9 in the Chiku Wetland.
He said that designating a black-faced spoonbill conservation area in Tainan County is not enough; the nation has to learn from the experiences of other countries to reduce the incidence of mishaps among endangered birds.
Tainan County Magistrate Su Huan-chi (蘇煥智) expressed his appreciation at the symposium to those who had helped rehabilitate the birds that were saved and said that the symposium will serve as a reference for future rescue operations.
Experts from Japan, the US and Taiwan participated in the two-day meeting to discuss black-faced spoonbill conservation, identification of illness in the birds and subsequent contingency measures, and management and analysis of their habitat.
Meanwhile, with the weather becoming warmer, bird watchers in Tainan have reported that the number of endangered birds is decreasing.
They said that from past experience, this is about the time that spoonbills start to migrate north and that the number would normally decrease dramatically by the end of the month.
By the end of May, all the birds will likely have left.
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