Taiwan News
Date: 2016-06-30
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
The Siangyang mountain house on the Jiaming Lake trail will be closed for two months to 
stop Formosan black bears from coming to search for food scraps in the house after 10 sightings of the animals so far this year, the Taitung Forest District Office said on Thursday.
Jiaming Lake has become a popular hiking destination in recent years, with nearly 30,000 visitors every year, and the number of visits from April to June is close to 7,000. Such frequent visits apparently have not startled the bears.
According to the forest office’s investigation, Formosan black bears were sighted twice in 2013, three times in 2014, four times in 2015, but 10 times in only two months this year.
According to hikers and forest administration officials, a Formosan black bear mother with two cubs were spotted coming to the Siangyang mountain house to search for food, and a young black bear was seen searching for food scraps in the mountain house, while feces from black bears after eating food scrapes were also spotted near the house. [FULL STORY]
