As soon as the cage of the endangered Formosan black bear was opened, conservationists began firing bullets and blowing air horns so that the frightened young bear immediately disappeared into the mountains of central Taiwan, presumably away from human contact.
Jimen, a one-and-a-half-year-old bear, eventually recovered from a severed paw caused by a hunter’s steel snare and was given a second chance at life.
“Please take care of him and help him find his parents safely,” Pihao Payen, a leader of the nearby ethnic Atayal community, prayed as Jimon disappeared from sight.
The 74-year-old chief and experienced hunter, dressed in a traditional tribal tunic and hat adorned with animal horns, also prayed to his ancestors for help in keeping the Jimon away from the traps.
Taiwanese hunters and conservationists are working together to protect Formosan black bears, which are still estimated at just a few hundred, by designing new traps that won’t amputate bear limbs if they’re accidentally caught in one.
Although bears are not targets for native Taiwanese hunters, people in the village of Pihao Payen have accidentally caught bears twice in recent years while setting traps for prey such as deer and boar, a traditional practice in the native culture.
According to the Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association, a non-governmental organisation, 18 bears have been trapped since 2014, six of which were found dead.
While most bears were released, some suffered serious injuries caused by old-fashioned hunting tools, such as metal snares that can break a bear’s bones or cut off claws or toes as the bear struggles to break free.
“When triggered by the animals, the steel traps bounce off the ground and tighten their limbs,” said Liu Li-wen, an animal caretaker who oversaw Jimen’s rescue at a government-run bear shelter in the mountains of Taichung.
“As the animal struggled, the noose tightened even more. When blood circulation stopped, his whole paw became necrotic,” he said, showing photos of Ziman’s swollen left paw. After two months of treatment, veterinarians had to amputate most of the paw to save the cub’s life.
“That’s why we’re seeing so many bears in the wild with broken paws or fingers. It’s possible they got caught in a trap, and freed themselves and escaped,” he said.
New Nets
The Formosan black bear is one of seven subspecies of the Asiatic black bear listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Native to subtropical Taiwan, with an iconic V-shaped white marking on the chest, the Formosan black bear is seen as a symbol of Taiwanese identity that supports its diverse culture and independence. Democratic Taiwan was formerly known internationally as Formosa.
To reduce deaths or injuries to wildlife, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency is now urging hunters and farmers to adopt a new type of animal trap, which is designed to trap only small prey and which is not so tight that it needs to be cut.
More than 5,600 such traps have been given free of charge to hunters and farmers in mountainous Taiwan. 60% of Taiwan is covered by forests. Also, monetary rewards are given to those who report cases of bears caught in traps.
“Because of its small size, and the bear’s palm is very wide, you can see that it (the bear’s paw) will not go in completely if it steps on it,” Pan Wen-ming, an ethnic Amis hunter and guava farmer in central Taiwan, told Reuters reporters how to set up the new trap.
“This attempts to minimize (bear injuries) while still allowing our tribe’s elders and hunters the opportunity to hunt,” he said.
Chen Yen-long, head of the bear sanctuary at the Wuxikeng Research Center in Taichung, said some hunters killed the bears for fear of being prosecuted for trapping a protected animal.
Sadly, Jimon, the cub with the severed paw, was found dead in the central mountains just weeks after his release, and authorities were unable to determine the cause of his death.
“This is not the end of the story. We will not stop what we are doing,” said Lai Chiao Ling, one of Ximen’s keepers. “At least there are still bears in the wild that we have to protect.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
