A liger — an animal created by crossing a tiger with a lion — which is being cared for at a protected wildlife shelter in Pingtung County will soon turn two years old.
Nicknamed A-piao (阿彪), the animal is the only survivor of three liger cubs born on Aug. 15, 2010, to a tigress that was illegally mated with a lion at a privately run leisure farm in Tainan, the shelter’s manager Kurtis Pei (裴家騏) said.
The male cub has genetic defects, which cost the shelter NT$200,000 (US$6,668) per month to address, he said.
Photo: CNA
A-piao now weighs 90.85kg, up from the 680g he weighed when he was first adopted by the shelter, Pei said.
“He is in a good mood whenever he sees people around, but even when he is alone, he can be seen having a good time on his own,” said animal care technician Chen Mei-ting (陳美汀), adding that A-piao likes to play with a ball.
According to Pei, A-piao is currently in a stable condition, but suffers from various ailments, including an S-shaped spinal cord and a rigid, immovable left hind leg.
A CT scan of the cub in May this year showed that he has deformed ribs, which limit the space available for his lungs to expand, rendering him prone to respiratory illness, Pei said, adding that so far the shelter has spent more than NT$2 million to raise the liger.
Veterinary doctor Lee Fang-ju (李方儒) said that the two-year-old cross-bred animal is 20 years old in human terms.
Pei said the oldest known liger is 20 years old, adding that A-piao is expected to live until he is 10 years old.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS