Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) pledging to collaborative on animal protection efforts between Taipei Zoo and Shoushan Zoo, while Taipei Zoo presented eight endangered animals to its Kaohsiung counterpart.
Ko told Chen that he hopes the two cities would further collaborate on animal protection as well as in other fields.
Chen expressed her gratitude to the Taipei City Government for signing the MOU with Kaohsiung, saying it would greatly help Kaohsiung to improve its knowledge of animal protection.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
She said the animals Taipei presented Kaohsiung with would expand the Shoushan Zoo’s menagerie and hopefully attract more visitors to the zoo.
The animals include two pygmy hippopotamuses (Choeropsis liberiensis), two common elands (Taurotragus oryx), one white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) and three barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia).
As Kaohsiung was the host of the 2009 World Games, Ko also asked Chen for advice on the organization of the Summer Universiade, which Taipei is to host next year.
Chen said that due to Kaohsiung’s limited funding for the event, it had no money to hire project managers for the sport categories, with the city having to outsource the task to university presidents.
She said that, despite the dire circumstances, the 2009 World Games were a success and that Kaohsiung would be more than willing to share with Taipei its experience in organizing an international sports event.
Responding to media queries after the ceremony, Chen apologized over the death of a Formosan black bear (Ursus thibetanus formosanus) that Taipei had presented to Shoushan Zoo.
The bear was attacked by another Formosan black bear in 2013.
She said the Kaohsiung City Government had reflected upon the accident and injected a large amount of funding to improve the living environments of the zoo’s animals.
Chen promised Ko and Taipei residents that a similar incident would not happen again.
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