The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day.
In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals.
The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.”
Photo: Screen grab from threads/jojo06260626
In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public and its own surveillance video footage so the man can be investigated and dealt with according to the law, the statement said.
The zoo said it would ask its lawyers to examine whether the man’s actions contravened laws relating to public order or animal protection.
Animal Division assistant researcher Peng Jen-lung (彭仁隆) yesterday said hyenas’ bite force can reach more than 400kg, 12-fold of that of human beings.
“Visitors can be severely hurt if they fall into the hyena enclosure,” he said.
The two spotted hyenas were delivered from France to Taiwan in 2011 to take part in director Ang Lee’s (李安) movie Life of Pi and were given to the zoo as a gift, Peng said.
Hyenas are carnivorous animals that feed on simple diets — mainly meat — so visitors are not allowed to drop extra food into their enclosure, he said.
The zoo usually feeds the hyenas beef or whole chickens, and sometimes provides large bones for them to train their bite force and grind their teeth, Peng said.
So far, the two hyenas remain healthy, he said, adding that they were let into the enclosure in the morning yesterday.
They had dinner as usual on Saturday, but the food dropped by the man was not found in the enclosure, Peng said.
As many large carnivores at the zoo are dangerous, including lions and leopards, enhanced measures were used to separate the animals, such as using high walls to enclose the hyenas, he said.
The zoo would not modify the display area of spotted hyenas, as the incident was due to a visitor’s misconduct, Peng said.
It is human behavior that should be controlled instead of animal behavior, he said, calling for visitors to watch animals at the zoo.
Clapping or shouting at animals is uncivilized, Peng added.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
RSS