The daily number of visitors to the newly opened Panda Hall at Taipei Zoo reached its full capacity for the first time since it opened on Monday, with the 22,000 numbered slips all gone by around 1pm yesterday.
The zoo had estimated that more than 100,000 people would try to visit the hall on Monday amid the panda frenzy. However, the two pandas, Tuan Tuan (團團) and Yuan Yuan (圓圓), only attracted about 18,000 visitors on the first two days of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Thanks partly to the warm weather yesterday, visitors began to line up outside the zoo long before the doors opened at 8:30am and the parking lot near the zoo was full before noon.
Taipei Zoo director Jason Yeh (葉傑生) said the number of visitors to the zoo usually reached a peak on the third day of the Lunar New Year holiday, after families had completed observance of all New Year traditions and began planning trips for the rest of the holiday.
Although the zoo extended the visit time allotted to each visitor in the hall to about 14 minutes, visitors continued to complain about being rushed through the exhibit. The zoo also received a growing number of complaints about pricey food and souvenirs in the hall.
A girl surnamed Chen accused the panda gift shop in the exhibit for raising the price of panda hats from NT$199 to NT$280 a day before.
“This hat was NT$199 yesterday, and it cost me NT$280 today. It's too pricey, and I don't understand why they increased the price of the hat from yesterday,” she said.
Ma Yu-yu (馬玉宇), manager of the gift shop, said all the NT$199 hats had sold out on Tuesday, and the new hats were more expensive because they were made of better quality materials.
The two pandas remained active yesterday, eating bamboo, wrestling and following each other around their compound. In response to speculation that Yuan Yuan was in her estrous cycle, Yeh said the two pandas, both four years old, were just playing.
The pandas would not be reproductively active until March to May, he said.
Yeh said the pandas ate six meals a day and normally took a nap after having lunch at 12pm.
The zoo suggested that visitors avoid visiting the exhibit at noon as the pandas would most likely be sleeping around that time.
The zoo encouraged visitors to call 02-2920 8889 ext. 8800 for information about the updates on the remaining number of visitors' slips before heading to the zoo.
The Taipei City Government urged the public to take public transportation to the zoo to avoid traffic jams.
Until the Lunar New Year holiday ends on Sunday, the zoo is open daily from 8:30am until 5:30pm. Normal operating hours (9am to 5pm) will resume on Monday.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and