The long-term movements of a Formosan black bear were revealed for the first time on Monday, marking what officials said was an “important milestone” in the conservation of the threatened species.
The results of the rehabilitation and tracking effort were detailed at a Forestry Bureau event in Taitung County, which also premiered a short film, titled Mulas, Kulumaha (返抵山林), to document the story.
In July 2019, a Formosan black bear cub was discovered by residents of Taitung County’s Guangyuan Village (廣原).
Photo courtesy of the Forestry Bureau
In honor of the village leader’s name and the cub’s perseverance, the locals named the cub “Mulas” after the Bunun word for “wild strawberry.”
Only a few months old when found, Mulas was given to the Taitung Forest District Office, which raised the cub for 10 months.
Before releasing her back into the wild in May last year, Mulas was fitted with a GPS tracking collar capable of remote release.
The 405 days of data collected before the collar was removed in June are the first time a Formosan black bear’s activity in the wild has been tracked over an extended period, bureau Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said.
Mulas covered more than 314km, climbing daily the equivalent of 100 flights of stairs in a vertical range of more than 120km, said Formosan Wild Sound Conservation Science Center founder Chiang Po-jen (姜博仁), who followed the signals.
As Mulas was at first unfamiliar with her surroundings, early data do not show a direction or pattern to her movements, Chiang said.
By wintertime, she settled on a warm south-facing cliff with easy access to water, he said.
The data showed that Mulas, like all black bears, grew more active in the fall to prepare for winter, he said.
By late June, after she had settled into a pattern, her collar was released and a team was sent to retrieve it, about 3km from where she had been released more than a year earlier, Chiang said.
A short video of the collar retrieval and a longer documentary about Mulas were also screened at the event, “hopefully contributing to the understanding of Formosan black bear conservation work,” office Director Wu Chang-yu (吳昌祐) said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS