Two young indigenous men on Sunday found a Formosan black bear caught in a trap while hiking in Hualien County and reported it to the local forestry authority, which sent personnel to rescue the animal.
The bear is being observed at a wildlife rehabilitation center in eastern Taiwan, the Hualien branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said in a statement on Monday.
This is the second report in a week and the sixth in the past four months of a Formosan black bear having been caught in a trap in Hualien and Taitung, the branch said.
Photo courtesy of the Hualien branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency
The branch said it received a report at about 3pm on Sunday from two men who said they heard the bear roar while hiking in a secondary forest area at an elevation below 600m in Jhuosi Township (卓溪).
The branch said it promptly sent a wildlife rescue team of 30 people to the area.
On arriving in the evening, rescuers found the area where the bear was stuck to be inaccessible and had to use a chainsaw to cut a path to it, the branch said.
It took them about 15 minutes to reach the bear and once the animal was anesthetized, the rescue team moved it to an open space for treatment, it said.
The bear was identified as a subadult female black bear weighing about 34kg, and her right foreleg was believed to have been stuck in the trap for at least two days, the branch said.
Veterinarians in the team amputated the bear’s right paw because the bone tissue had died due to a lack of blood supply, it said.
The black bear was sent to the Eastern Taiwan Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center for temporary observation at about 9pm, and would be set free depending on how well the wound heals, the branch said.
The Formosan black bear is the only bear endemic to Taiwan and is considered an endangered species by the government, with a population in the wild of less than 600.
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