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.
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