A 664-hectare area of the sprawling Aogu Wetlands (鰲鼓溼地) in Chiayi County’s Dongshih Township (東石) will be designated as a wildlife conservation sanctuary, a Council of Agriculture official said.
A council advisory committee approved the proposal late last year and the council is expected to make a formal announcement soon designating Aogu as the country’s 18th wildlife reserve area, the official said.
The Aogu Wetlands, the largest of its kind in the country, has long been known as an ecological treasure of lagoons, sandbars, fish farms and beefwood forests.
BIRDS
The area attracts thousands of birds, including egrets, black drongos, Japanese whiteeyes, grey plovers, black-headed gulls, moorhens, northern shovelers and night egrets.
A council survey showed that the Aogu Wetlands, covering a total area of more than 1,500 hectares, is home to 10 mammal species, 18 fish species, 22 crustacean species, 17 amphibious species, 346 insect species and 221 bird species — or nearly half of the 450 bird species recorded in Taiwan.
The survey also showed that about 75 percent of the birds recorded in the Aogu Wetlands are migratory species, many of which are endangered or protected, such as black-faced spoonbills and Oriental white storks.
ECOLOGY
“We are hopeful that the designation of the wildlife reserve sanctuary will contribute to the protection of the natural habitat of many precious wildlife species and thus help upgrade Taiwan’s status in the world ecological conservation community,” the official said.
With the establishment of the sanctuary, the region will remain a major habitat on Taiwan’s west coast for East Asian migratory birds, the official said.
Meanwhile, the surrounding area of the wildlife reserve sanctuary will be developed into a forested multi-purpose park for education, pleasure and recreation.
The council’s Forestry Bureau has planted 677 hectares of trees, including paper bark trees, at the site of the planned multi-purpose park, which is scheduled to open at the end of 2011, the official said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS