JIJI EARTHQUAKE: The collapse of a slope of Jiufenershan killed 41 people, but also hit the wild sambar deer living in the area, ushering in two decades of conservation efforts
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 17, 2019
By: Tung Cheng-kuo and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The wild sambar population in Nantou County’s Jiufenershan (九份二山) has been
A Formosan sambar deer grazes in Nantou County’s Guosing Township in an undated picture.Photo provided by the Nantou branch of the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau
restored to 4,000, after nearly two decades of intensive conservation following the 921 Earthquake, the Council of Agriculture’s Soil and Water Conservation Bureau said yesterday.
The bureau had been tight-lipped about the conservation program to avoid attracting visitors who might have disrupted the efforts, bureau Nantou Branch Director Chen Jung-chun (陳榮俊) said.
As the deer population has largely recovered, the bureau now deems it safe to reveal the program to the public for the first time as the 20th anniversary of the earthquake approaches, Chen said.
Tourists visiting would have disrupted reproduction during a critical time, he said, adding that the Endemic Species Research Institute and local residents estimate the deer population at about 4,000. [FULL STORY]
