Following the discovery of a Formosan black bear carcass in a freezer in Pingtung County and a video showing two motorcyclists holding a dead bear between them as they drove along a road in December last year, the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office has investigated four bear killings, including the poaching of two female bears in the protected Shuang-guei Lake Major Wildlife Habitat.
It is high time that the judiciary meted out stricter punishments to poachers and investigate whether they are involved in illicit wildlife trade.
Granted, the number of injured Formosan black bears that have been nursed back to health and released into the wild has been rising, but so has the number of reported poachings — and the reports are only the tip of the iceberg.
Hunting Formosan black bears is considered taboo by 10 indigenous communities, including the Atayal, Taroko and Bunun. The recent poaching incidents violate indigenous traditions. Moreover, most of the guns used in the killings were not even registered.
People should refrain from harming wild animals, except in cases where there is an immediate threat to life or public safety, and report sightings to the authorities.
Pingtung prosecutors said they could not find any evidence suggesting the poached bears had posed any threat to human life or public safety that necessitated their killing. The Formosan black bear is listed as a protected species, so even if the animals had posed a threat to human life, people involved in the incidents should have shown extra restraint and alerted the authorities.
Over the past decade, 12 Formosan black bears have been reported killed by humans, while seven have been trapped by snares and eight have been injured with guns. Of the injured animals, 80 percent had their paws missing, a staggering ratio.
The numbers underscore the importance of achieving ecological sustainability and preserving the indigenous hunting culture. The government should step up measures regarding Formosan black bear preservation to avoid deliberate or accidental killing and improve reporting.
Although the government has been promoting selective snares, people can still easily buy foot-hold snares online, complete with instruction videos. As Formosan black bears roam over exceptionally large areas, there is a dire need for periodic reviews and policy adjustments. Before it revokes penalties for the accidental catching of Formosan black bears, the government should clearly lay out the legality of using traps and snares to protect the animals.
There are a few hundred Formosan black bears left in the wild in Taiwan. Analyses of the species have shown that the bears can withstand only minimal levels of hunting before facing risk of extinction. That is why the Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association has said there should be no tolerance for harming or killing Formosan black bears.
After decades of efforts and preservation by government and private actors, things are finally looking up for Formosan black bears. Hopefully, the latest poaching incident would raise further awareness regarding the dire challenges that the bears face.
Hwang Mei-hsiu is chairwoman of the Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association and a professor at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.
Translated by Rita Wang
Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention. If it makes headlines, it is because China wants to invade. Yet, those who find their way here by some twist of fate often fall in love. If you ask them why, some cite numbers showing it is one of the freest and safest countries in the world. Others talk about something harder to name: The quiet order of queues, the shared umbrellas for anyone caught in the rain, the way people stand so elderly riders can sit, the
Taiwan’s fall would be “a disaster for American interests,” US President Donald Trump’s nominee for undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby said at his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday last week, as he warned of the “dramatic deterioration of military balance” in the western Pacific. The Republic of China (Taiwan) is indeed facing a unique and acute threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s rising military adventurism, which is why Taiwan has been bolstering its defenses. As US Senator Tom Cotton rightly pointed out in the same hearing, “[although] Taiwan’s defense spending is still inadequate ... [it] has been trending upwards
After the coup in Burma in 2021, the country’s decades-long armed conflict escalated into a full-scale war. On one side was the Burmese army; large, well-equipped, and funded by China, supported with weapons, including airplanes and helicopters from China and Russia. On the other side were the pro-democracy forces, composed of countless small ethnic resistance armies. The military junta cut off electricity, phone and cell service, and the Internet in most of the country, leaving resistance forces isolated from the outside world and making it difficult for the various armies to coordinate with one another. Despite being severely outnumbered and
Small and medium enterprises make up the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, yet large corporations such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) play a crucial role in shaping its industrial structure, economic development and global standing. The company reported a record net profit of NT$374.68 billion (US$11.41 billion) for the fourth quarter last year, a 57 percent year-on-year increase, with revenue reaching NT$868.46 billion, a 39 percent increase. Taiwan’s GDP last year was about NT$24.62 trillion, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, meaning TSMC’s quarterly revenue alone accounted for about 3.5 percent of Taiwan’s GDP last year, with the company’s
RSS