Two Formosan pangolins that Taipei Zoo loaned to Prague Zoo for a breeding project arrived in the Czech Republic on Thursday and are to make a public debut in the middle of next month, Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib said.
Hrib thanked Taiwan for arranging transportation for the endangered animals.
His government would launch online voting this month to give the two animals nicknames, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Zoo
Prague Zoo said that the pangolins — a female named Jun Hou-tang (潤喉糖) and a male named Kuo Pao (果寶) — are housed in an area featuring nocturnal animals in its Indonesian Jungle section.
Hrib in March 2019 during a visit to Taiwan proposed that Taipei Zoo donate two Formosan pangolins to Prague Zoo to enable a breeding program.
The plan became reality when Taipei and Prague formalized a sister-city relationship during a visit by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to the Czech capital in January 2020.
The two zoos during Ko’s visit signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in conservation to facilitate the loan-breeding program.
However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Prague Zoo was unable to send a team to Taipei to learn how to care for and breed the animals.
The pangolins traveled to the Czech Republic with Taipei Zoo African Animal Area head Tsai Yun-ling (蔡昀陵) and veterinarian Wu Li-hsin (吳立信).
Prague is the second zoo in Europe to house Formosan pangolins.
Taipei Zoo sent two pangolins to Leipzig Zoo in December 2016 as part of its effort to help sustain the pangolin population in Germany.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
RSS