A pair of red-crowned cranes have hatched their first egg 11 years after arriving at the Taipei Zoo.
The cranes were in 2011 delivered from the Kushiro Zoo in Hokkaido, Japan, as part of a collaborative agreement to widen conservation efforts beyond the species’ country of origin, the Taipei Zoo said in a statement yesterday.
After getting used to their new habitat, Kika and Big were paired to begin breeding in 2014, with Kika, the female, often seen performing the species’ unique mating dance.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Zoo via CNA
Big occasionally responded to Kika’s call, and she laid her first batch of eggs in 2015.
After that attempt was unsuccessful, the zoo altered their fodder, enlarged their habitat and artificially inseminated Kika’s eggs.
Her first chick hatched naturally and is being cared for by both parents.
The chick is expected to start following its mother around to seek food, while Big would protect them.
The Taipei Zoo described Kika, 17, and Big, 20, as responsible first-time parents.
Even though the hatching of Kika and Big’s chick was eagerly awaited, it was not the first time that the species reproduced at the zoo, it said.
The first time a red-crowned crane chick hatched on its premises was in 1918, followed by several more hatchings, the zoo added.
The Japanese zoo joined in to celebrate yesterday’s hatching and is sharing its knowledge on caring for crane chicks with zookeepers in Taipei.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
RSS