COLLATERAL DAMAGE: A university’s bird studies laboratory found that a highly toxic pesticide and rodent poisons used by farmers were to blame for deaths of black kites
Taipei Times
Date: Dec 29, 2019
By: Chiu Chih-jou / Staff reporter
The number of documented black kites in Taiwan has reached 709, a seven-year high, which is
Two black kites perch on a tree in an undated photograph.
Photo: Hsieh Chi-en via CNA
The number of the raptors, listed as a second-level endangered species, has fluctuated over the past several years, totaling 272 in 2013, 626 in 2016, 583 last year and exceeding 700 for the first time this year, the group’s data showed.
Shen Chen-chung (沈振中), nicknamed “Mr Eagle,” was the first person in the nation to attempt a formal count of the species in 1992, when there were fewer than 200, group member Lin Hui-shan (林惠珊) said.
Since the group took over the work in 2013, it has mobilized volunteers nationwide in the fall and winter each year to count the birds in their nighttime habitats, she said. [FULL STORY]
