A collaboration between Taipei Zoo and Florida’s Gulf Breeze Zoo to facilitate the procreation of pygmy hippopotamuses could finally begin after two animals arrived in Florida on Friday.
The breeding project, which was the result of discussions between the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the US Association of Zoos and Aquariums, aims to prevent inbreeding among rare animals, Taipei Zoo said, adding that the hippos it sent to Florida are males.
Plans to ship the animals to Florida in May were put on hold due to a COVID-19 outbreak in Taiwan, Taipei Zoo said.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo
Its efforts to find an alternative flight or airline willing to transport the animals were moot throughout last month, it said.
In the middle of last month the zoo was told that flights to Miami would be possible this month, but the plans were again delayed after tropical storm Elsa blew into Florida this month.
Taipei Zoo eventually loaded the hippos onto a China Airlines cargo plane on Wednesday and the animals arrived on Friday after more than 18 hours in the air and 10 hours on a truck, it said.
Taipei Zoo said that it was unable to send staff with the hippos due to the pandemic.
The airline kept the temperature in the aircraft’s hold low to help keep the hippos hydrated, it said.
It thanked Alaska Zoo for providing staff during a stopover in Anchorage to care for the hippos.
The hippos have relatives in other zoos and parks in Taiwan, Taipei Zoo said, adding that it hoped the breeding project would go well.
In other news, the Taitung Forest District Office on Friday said that its year-long project to monitor a Formosan black bear released into the wild in May last year has ended and the animal is adapting well to its natural habitat.
Named Mulas by local villagers who found the cub in Taitung County’s Guangyuan Village (廣原) in July 2019, office personnel cared for it for 10 months, teaching it skills to survive in the wild before releasing it.
The cub was only a few months old when it was found and the office said it probably wandered from its parents.
Before its release, it was fitted with a GPS collar so its movements could be tracked, the office said.
“Mulas has fully returned to the wild,” office head Wu Chang-yu (吳昌祐) said, adding that the feeling of accomplishment was akin to seeing a daughter get married.
Although the collar was designed to fall off after about a year, Wu said that the office last month remotely triggered its release prior to its battery running out.
“We believe Mulas is mature enough and has been adapting well in the wild,” he said.
The device was retrieved about 3km from where the bear was released last year, the office said.
Taitung office member Lin Meng-yi (林孟怡) said that a team deployed to locate and retrieve the collar did not spot Mulas.
However, the area where the collar was found is sparsely populated and has abundant food resources, Lin said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS