The Yushan National Park Headquarters’ Black Bear Research team has released a rare photograph of an enormous bear, estimated at 160kg, the team said.
The photo was taken in the park late last year by Hwang Mei-hsiu (黃美秀), a professor at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology’s Institute of Wildlife Conservation. It was taken with an automatic infrared camera in Hualien County’s Dafen (大分) area, a critical habitat for the endangered species.
According to the park headquarters, the bear was an adult black bear and was almost twice as large as other Formosan black bears, which generally weigh about 90kg.
Photo: CNA
Park officials, citing a recent study by Hwang and her team on the Formosan black bear, said that the number of times they have found evidence of bear activity in Yushan park this year is the -second-highest on record.
The study also included an estimate on the availability of acorns, a favorite food of the bear. The amount of acorns produced in the park this year was also second only to record year 2008, meaning the bears have lots of them to eat.
Officials hailed this as a sign that research and conservation efforts are working.
Photo provided courtesy of the Yushan National Park Management Office
However, with the foraging and activity area of the black bears growing, the possibility of contact with humans is increasing. It is possible that human actions that provoke a mother bear and her cubs could trigger retaliation from the bears, the park’s Preservation Office director Su Chih-fung (蘇志峰) said, adding that people living in mountain areas and visitors to Yushan should be on their guard.
Su recalled how years ago a black bear encountered -preservation personnel at a mountain bend and the encounter resulted in both the bear and the personnel fleeing in opposite directions. This suggests that black bears are also afraid of people, he said. That being said, people -encountering black bears should still try to leave as quickly as -possible, Su said, adding that in such circumstances one should not resort to playing possum or climbing a tree because Formosan black bears would not be fooled.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
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