More than 2,000 sesarmid crabs (Metasesarma aubryi) were found dead on Monday on the main road circling Green Island (綠島).
The bodies of the crabs were discovered by Lin Teng-jung (林登榮), a cultural and historical researcher living on the island, who took pictures of the harrowing sight and uploaded them to a Facebook group he had set up to raise awareness of wild animals being killed by vehicles.
He said the crabs were most likely squashed on their way to or returning from the ocean to lay eggs, adding that most of them headed out to sea at dawn and were killed after they returned to land.
Photo courtesy of Lin Teng-jung
The unfortunate event continued well past 8am on Monday, with many females killed while still bearing their eggs, Lin said.
The S-curve along a slope near the Shihlang (石朗) diving area, which spans about 50m, has always been a hotbed for road accidents for sesarmid crabs, Lin said.
Once, he counted as many as 2,247 dead sesarmid crab bodies when he conducted research on terrestrial crabs being killed in road accidents on the main road of Green Island.
He said that such incidents surge every year during the Lunar New Year holidays, and in June and July when the ebb tides are the strongest, as the terrestrial crustaceans prefer to lay their eggs in the sea during crashing ebb tides.
Lin said warning signs have been set up on both ends of the accident-prone area, but they are barely visible after dark.
He urged motorcyclists on the road to go slower and heed the “passers-by.”
According to Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network, sesarmid crabs usually lay their eggs several hours after dusk and at dawn.
A common roadkill in both Kenting (墾丁) and on Green Island, the Web site once recorded 1,500 causalities on a 2km-long road within 24 hours.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS