Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter.
The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020.
Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry Bureau
After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義).
However, officials became concerned after the tracking device stopped working on Friday last week after the bear had moved toward the Wujie (武界) community, and informed Fajhih Village (法治) Warden Yeh A-lang (葉阿良) that it might encroach on inhabited lands.
Yeh on Friday and Saturday made loudspeaker announcements informing residents to remain alert and retrieve food and traps.
On Tuesday, Forestry Bureau officials discovered the bear’s remains buried in a creek valley about 100m from an industrial road in Wujie, with serious injuries on its head and chest, and no tracking collar.
Chinese-language media also reported finding a small hunting shack about 100m away.
The remains have been sent to the Council of Agriculture’s National Institute for Animal Health for an autopsy to determine the cause of death, the bureau said.
Police have been asked to investigate, although they are likely to be challenged by a lack of security cameras or passersby on the remote road.
One local hunter told reporters that fellow hunters often ride scooters along remote roads at night looking for prey, since the headlights illuminate their eyes.
This means that hunters usually do not know what they shot until afterward, and even sometimes hit other hunters, he said, adding that some illegal loggers have even been killed this way.
He said he suspects the bear was killed by mistake and buried to hide the evidence, and its tracker removed and destroyed, as turning it in would implicate the hunter in an illegal act.
The bureau said in a statement on Tuesday that GPS tracking showed no movement from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning last week, at which point the bear appeared to suddenly start moving toward Wujie before it stopped transmitting.
The bureau asks anyone with a lead to contact police at 049-277-5110 or the bureau at its 24-hour hotline, 0800-000-930. A reward of up to NT$200,000 is offered for evidence leading to an arrest, it said.
Additional reporting by CNA
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS