Taiwan News
Date: 2015-10-08
By: Jocylin FC, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Eurasian tree sparrow is commonly seen in cities and towns of eastern Asia, thus its
Bird poisoning: Do‘pest birds’ deserve to die? Taiwan News
conservation status falls in the least concern category. Many people do not pay attention to tree sparrow but the decreasing of tree sparrow’s population is sending an alarming message. Unfortunately, the decreasing in tree sparrow’s population does not concern the locals for they are also labeled as ‘pest animals’ to farmers. The students of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology Bird Ecology Research team found 381 dead wild birds in and around the red bean farmlands at Wandan, Pingtung County on October 7.
While the students were picking up the dead birds, the locals told them that the owner of the red bean farmland poisoned the birds. The owner has been poisoning the birds for days and there were more dead birds few days ago. There were 357 dead tree sparrows, 11 red collared doves, 11 spotted doves, and 2 common moorhens at the scene. The students said there were more dead birds in the field but they left to avoid distress encounter with the owner of the farmland. However, flocks of tree sparrows continue to fly into the field. [FULL STORY]
