Kaohsiung City Government is mulling importing koalas from Australia next year, a government official said yesterday.
Kung Tien-fa (龔天發), the deputy director-general of the city's Tourism Bureau, told reporters that the city government had drawn up plans to seek funding from the central government to house koalas at the city's Shoushan Zoo.
Kung mentioned the bureau's plan when asked about the conflict over the import of a pair of white tigers from China.
China's Xiangjiang Safari Park offered the tigers to Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chuang Chi-wang (莊啟旺) as a gift during Chuang's visit to China last summer.
However, the import of the tigers has been stalled as local animal rights groups oppose the move, saying the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) states that tigers should not be traded or bred for purposes other than research or education.
CITES is an intergovernmental agreement to ensure that the trading of animals and plants does not hurt their prospects for survival.
Chuang this week lashed out at the city government for delaying the import of the tigers.
During a visit to Shoushan Zoo, which is temporarily closed for renovation, on Tuesday, Chuang said the number of visitors to the zoo had been dropping because “there is no star animal in the zoo.”
He said the city government had been blinded by political ideology by citing CITES as a way to delay the arrival of the tigers.
Chuang threatened to take action should the city government continue to delay the import of the tigers.
Kung said the city government would abide by CITES as white tigers are an endangered species.
He said the city government would also need to enhance communication with animal rights organizations before importing the tigers to Kaohsiung.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
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