Local authorities are not doing enough to protect wildlife from poachers, a Pingtung County resident said, after a Formosan sika deer was apparently killed for its antlers on Thursday last week.
The person, who lives in an area of Kenting National Park, on Tuesday shared a photograph on Facebook of a Formosan sika deer that had been shot dead with its antlers removed.
“Kenting is a paradise for poachers,” the post said.
Photo courtesy of Kenting National Park Headquarters
The resident of Sheding (社頂), a community in Hengchun Township (恆春) that overlaps with the national park, said that they heard a gunshot in the early hours of Thursday morning and later discovered the deer carcass about 20m behind their house, abandoned in the grass.
“This is the third time this month I heard gunshots,” the resident said, adding that they hoped authorities would “stop dismissing poaching as being caused by stray dogs.”
Kenting National Park Headquarters Deputy Director Chen Chun-shan (陳俊山) on Tuesday confirmed that park personnel had found a dead male Formosan sika deer in the location mentioned by the resident.
Its antlers had been sawed off and it had a gunshot wound under its right foreleg, Chen said.
“Poaching Formosan sika deer in a national park is punishable by a NT$3,000 (US$94) fine under Article 13 of the National Park Act (國家公園法),” he told reporters.
In addition, if illegal firearms are involved, offenders would be prosecuted under the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and punished with a prison sentence of three to 10 years, and a fine of up to NT$7 million, Chen said.
In a video statement, Seventh Special Police Corps 8th Brigade Deputy Captain Chen Yuan-fa (陳元發) said that police were coordinating with park authorities, and had expanded their patrols in the area at the beginning of this year.
“Our division obtained relevant intelligence in March. Currently, we have tracked down illegal poaching involving four cases and four suspects” Chen said.
Two of these cases were prosecuted under the National Park Law, while the other two were designated as illegal firearm violations, he said.
“Our division will continue to hunt down and make arrests in the future,” he added.
The Formosan sika deer is a unique subspecies of deer native to Taiwan that is characterized by its “beautiful white spotted coat,” Taiwan Livestock Research Institute said.
The Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association says on its Web site that the small population of wild Formosan sika deer was “pushed to the brink of extinction” due to habitat destruction in the second half of the 20th century and became extinct in the wild in 1969.
However, following the launch of Kenting National Park’s Formosan Sika Deer Restoration Program in collaboration with Taipei Zoo in 1984, the population of the indigenous deer species has gradually increased, it said.
As of July, there were more than 2,000 Formosan sika deer in the Hengchun area of Kenting National Park, it said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS