ANIMALS
Tigers make appearance
Two Malayan tigers recently brought to Taiwan from France as part of a global conservation program made their first public appearance at Taipei Zoo on Saturday. The felines named Shima and Serikin arrived in the country on March 1 from Le Parc des Felins, a French zoological park dedicated to the breeding and conservation of wild cats.Visitors were able to see Shima and Serikin for the first time after the two big cats spent more than two months in quarantine adapting to their new home in Taipei, the zoo said. It was Taipei Zoo’s first time working with a global conservation program that seeks to maintain the population of the severely threatened Malayan tiger. Taipei Zoo said the two cats have completely different personalities, with Shima being playful and eager to explore her new environment, while Serikin was timid and cautious at first. They are quiet and elegant animals, the zookeepers said, reminding visitors to refrain from being too loud when observing them in the zoo’s Tropical Rainforest Area. Malayan tigers can be found in the the forests of southern Thailand and Malaysia, but due to habitat fragmentation and other factors, including poaching, their population in the wild continues to fall, Taipei Zoo Director Chen I-tsung (諶亦聰) said. The animal has been listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Chen added.
Photo courtesy of Tigerair Taiwan Ltd
PETS
Dog taxi service to begin
The Taichung City government yesterday announced a pet-friendly taxi service, enabling owners to bring their pets along without any additional charge. Owner-passengers can choose from 16 local service providers at www.traffic.taichung.gov.tw/content/index.asp? Parser=1,7,635,495, where many drivers are pet owners themselves, the city government said in a news release. Tainan Transportation Bureau chief Yeh Chao-fu (葉昭甫) said passengers are required to place their pets in a cage before boarding and ensure taxi cleanliness throughout the journey to avoid incurring an additional cleaning fee. The taxi fare is metered as a regular yellow cab service, Yeh said, adding that people should pay attention, as non-traditional taxis might charge a different fee. The service is part of the city government’s efforts to increase the welfare of the growing pet population, Yeh said. Taichung ranks second in the country, with a total of 334,234 registered dogs and cats, behind New Taipei City, central government data showed.
WEATHER
Rain expected today
A weather front that arrived overnight would bring rain today and push temperatures in north and central Taiwan to 20°C over the next few days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. With the arrival of the front, sporadic showers or thunderstorms are expected across Taiwan today, before tapering off in the late afternoon or evening, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said. Daytime temperatures today would remain at about 22°C to 24°C in Taipei and New Taipei City, 23°C to 27°C degrees in Taichung, 26°C to 30°C in Kaohsiung and 23°C to 25°C in Hualien, the CWA said. From tomorrow through Friday, drier weather and partly cloudy to sunny skies are expected in the western half of the country, while temperatures would gradually rise back to the high 20s in the north, the weather agency said. During that period, overnight and early morning temperatures in northern and central Taiwan would drop to about 20°C, creating day-night temperature differences of 8°C to 9°C, the CWA said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its