The number of nests built by the invasive African sacred ibis in Changhua’s Hanbao Wetlands (漢寶濕地) has nearly tripled over the past two years, despite efforts to eradicate them, an environmentalist said.
Aerial photographs showed 800 nests in the wetlands, up from 300 two years ago, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Changhua Division director-general Tsai Chia-yang (蔡嘉陽) said.
“The government needs a strong plan of action to deal with this,” Tsai said.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Wild Bird Federation
The bird symbolizes wisdom in Egyptian culture, but in Europe it has been labeled as one of the 100 worst invasive animal species.
The ibis entered the wild in Taiwan 34 years ago after an enclosure at a zoo in northern Taiwan broke open in a typhoon.
The Chinese Wild Bird Federation estimates that there are 2,500 to 3,000 of the birds in the wild, making it one of the most invasive animal species in the nation.
The birds move to different areas of Taiwan proper depending on the season, Tsai said, adding that they lay about three eggs every summer and spring.
The Hanbao Wetlands are particularly suitable for nesting, since the surrounding fish farms and fields provide an abundant source of food, he said.
Rubbing corn oil on the eggs to reduce the likelihood of hatching — a common technique for dealing with invasive birds — has proven ineffective, union vice secretary Lee I-hsin (李益鑫) said.
Removing young hatchlings from treetops has also been ineffective, as the birds are easily frightened and fly away, he said, adding that officials last year succeeded in removing only about 50 of the birds.
The US government last year began allowing US residents to hunt the species using bows, but this approach would likely not work in Taiwan, he said, adding that the use of firecrackers is also being considered.
The ibis has no natural predators in Taiwan and even though environmentalists have yet to find any evidence of it harming the local ecology, it does damage vegetation when building its nest, Lee said.
The bird also shares its habitat with local herons, meaning that it might eventually crowd them out, he added.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
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.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test