The bat population at Taoyuan’s Sanmin Bat Cave (三民蝙蝠洞) has shown signs of recovery after dropping to nearly zero over the past two decades, the Taoyuan Department of Tourism said on Sunday.
The department urged visitors to the cave to follow the rules when observing the bats to preserve their habitat.
Crossing the fences or climbing over nearby rocks could damage the habitat and drive the bats away, so visitors should only observe the animals from a nearby lookout, department Director Yang Sheng-ping (楊勝評) said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
To improve the experience at the cave, the department in 2018 spent NT$12.95 million (US$438,596 at the current exchange rate) to restore the site, which involved repairing its trails, rebuilding the lookout, and building a parking lot and other facilities, Yang said.
The cave, which is in Fusing District (復興) in Taoyuan’s mountainous east, is made up of cavernous rock formations and was once home to a bat population as many as 10,000.
However, the animals had been almost completely absent from the cave for more than two decades. Their departure had been linked to tourists littering and barbecuing near the cave, and along a trail leading up to it, despite signs warning against such behavior.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The cave — which is 20m long, 50m wide and 20m deep — still attracts a large number of visitors due to its natural beauty, and traces of the old bat population can still be seen in the cave’s red soil formed by their droppings.
Kung Chun-kai (孔俊凱), a travel enthusiast familiar with the cave, said that it is home to strange-looking rock formations.
It has been rumored that the bats had left the cave because people would enter it to meditate, which, among other human behavior, disturbed the animals’ habitat, he said.
Following the restoration, some bats have returned, with about 70 to 80 animals beings spotted on the cave ceiling, Kung said.
The species of bat has yet to be confirmed, but they are larger than regular bats and look similar to the fruit bats that live on Lala Mountain in Taoyuan, he added.
The reappearance of bats inside the cave is a sign that the local ecology is improving, he said, adding that the animals are likely to attract more of their kind to the cave.
The cave has been placed on a list of tourist hotspots for the Northern Cross Adventure Festival organized by the Taoyuan City Government, which aims to promote 10 itineraries featuring mountain trails and waterfalls near the North Cross-Island Highway.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS