Enormous Great White Shark Pregnant with Record 14 Pups Was Caught and Sold in Taiwan

By Kimberly Hickok, Reference Editor | March 22, 2019 02:52pm ET

A large, female great white shark pregnant with a record 14 pups was accidentally caught by fishers off the coast of Taiwan and sold at a fish market on Wednesday (March 20). The enormous mamma was purchased for less than $2,000 by a Taiwanese taxidermy company, Taiwan English News reported.

The images from local news agencies of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and the pups that were cut out of her are hard to believe. At more than 15 feet long (4.7 meters), the shark is bigger than a small car and is probably not what most fishers want in their nets. The shark's 14 pups look as though they were nearly fully developed and ready to take on the open ocean but were stopped short when their mother was killed.

The 14 pups this mamma shark was carrying likely mark a record number for the species, said David Ebert, a shark scientist and the director of the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in Moss Landing, California. "It is very rare to catch pregnant white sharks, so at least they were able to document this with photographs," Ebert told Live Science in an email. 

Read on

The plan to reintroduce a big cat that might never have existed

13 September 2017

Ideas are afoot to return the clouded leopard to Taiwan, where it was declared extinct in 2013. Yet some say the big cat never lived there

By Sean Mowbray

“THIS is another animal from the distant wilds of the interior, whose skins the savages bring to the borders to barter with the Chinese.” With these words, published in 1862, Robert Swinhoe introduced the Formosan clouded leopard to the Western world. Europe’s consular representative to Taiwan, he had seen only a few flattened skins on the island, but this was enough for him to distinguish it as a species new to science. Unlike its relatives elsewhere in Asia, wrote Swinhoe, the Formosan clouded leopard had a short tail.

It was declared extinct in 2013, but this is no ordinary story about a large cat being wiped off the planet. There’s a catch. Plans are afoot to bring the svelte feline’s closest relative back to Taiwan – despite lingering questions over whether the clouded leopard ever existed at all.

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New crab with star-shaped outgrowths discovered in Taiwan

by Mongabay.com on 30 August 2017

From a red coral fishing ground off Taiwan, scientists have collected a new species of crab.

The orange crustacean is covered in numerous tiny, star-shaped protrusions and has been named Pariphiculus stellatus, from the Latin word stellatus meaning 'starry'.

In the same study, the scientists report the first-ever record of a rare crab species - Acanthodromia margarita - that they collected from the red coral beds.

A small seamount by Peng-Chia-Yu Island, located 60 kilometers (~37 miles) off Taiwan, is prized for its red corals — corals with red or pink skeletons, popularly used for jewelry.

From these red coral fishing grounds, scientists have collected a new species of crab: an orange crustacean covered in numerous tiny, star-shaped protrusions. The crab has also been discovered in the Philippines.

In a new study published in the journal ZooKeys, scientists have named the crab Pariphiculus stellatus, from the Latin word stellatus meaning ‘starry’.

The starlike outgrowths change with age, the researchers write in a statement,“becoming shorter, blunter and mushroom-shaped to resemble wart-like outgrowths and granules. Regardless of their sex, as the crabs grow larger, their carapaces also get proportionately rounder and wider.”

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15 endangered turtles found smuggled in shoes: Taiwan Customs – via Herp Digest

The turtles were turned over to a wildlife center in northern Taiwan

By Matthew Lubin,Taiwan News, Staff Writer 3/13/17

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- The Forestry Bureau said on March 13 that the Customs Administration confiscated 15 endangered turtles on flight FX5142 from Malaysia being smuggled inside sports shoes in parcels.

All of the turtles were alive when discovered by customs when the parcels were checked, and the Forestry Bureau has sent them to a wildlife center in northern Taiwan. The wildlife center works with academic institutions and the Taipei Zoo to ensure proper care of its animals.

The wildlife center has options for the endangered turtles, including returning them to their native habitats. No specific plan has been made at this time.

The Forestry Bureau plans to prosecute the smugglers. Relevant laws indicate offenders are subject to six months to five years in prison and a fine of NT$300,000 (US$9,700) to NT$1.5 million.

Among the turtles confiscated were one angonoka tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora) and 14 painted terrapins, or saw-jawed turtle (Batagur borneoensis). The angonoka tortoise is native to Madagascar and is one of the rarest land tortoises in the world with an estimated wild population of just 600. The painted terrapin is native to rainforests of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and is a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix II critically endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Emerald and gold: Two new precious-eyed endemic tree frog species from Taiwan

Date:February 1, 2016

Source:Pensoft Publishers

Two endemic tree frog species, not recognised by science until now, have been identified in broadleaf forests in the island country of Taiwan. Unlike their siblings from mainland China and Southern Asia, they demonstrate reproductive behaviour, characterised with egg-eating (oophagous) tadpole embryos feeding on eggs, while still inside the mother's womb. What told them apart initially, however, were their gemstone-coloured eyes. The research team, led by Dr. Shu-Ping Wu, University of Taipei, have their study published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

One of the new species, whose scientific name, K. berylliniris, translates from Latin to 'green-coloured iris', has been found to dwell among the leaves of moist forests in eastern Taiwan. It is a slender-bodied amphibian with the females slightly bigger than the males, measuring an average length of 41 mm versus 35 mm, respectively. Matching its emerald eyes is its body, which can be either dark green in colour, or deep tan. It is only the belly and the throat that, in contrast, are white and sometimes faintly speckled. On the other hand, its tadpoles vary from heavily dark brown to black.

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Asian fortune-teller spider discovered in America

March 23, 2015

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Researchers from the University of Georgia and Georgia Museum of Natural History have for the first time found a creature known as the East Asian Joro spider or Asian fortune-teller spider in North America, according to a new study appearing in the journal PeerJ.

In addition to its unique nickname, the Joro spider (Nephila clavata) is best known for producing strong golden silk, according to National Geographic. It is a member of a group of spiders known as golden orb-web weavers found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world.

Thanks a lot, Asia!

One member of this arachnid group, the banana spider, is native to the southeastern US, but the Joro spider is normally found only in Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan. Scientists believe that it likely found its way to the US on shipping vessels, and that it may have been here for years.

The Joro spider is similar in size to the banana spider but it has a distinctive color scheme, which includes black legs with yellow-orange stripes and a bright yellow body with bluish-green stripes on its back and red markings on its underside. It was originally discovered by a Georgia resident by the name of Wesley Huffmaster, who brought it to the attention of scientists at UGA.

Read more at 

Ancient Human Fossil Could Be New Primitive Species

by Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor | January 27, 2015 11:01am ET

An ancient human fossil discovered from the seafloor near Taiwan reveals that a primitive group of humans, potentially an unknown species, once lived in Asia, researchers say.

These findings suggest that multiple lineages of extinct humans may have coexisted in Asia before the arrival of modern humans in the region about 40,000 years ago, the scientists added.

Although modern humans, Homo sapiens, are the only surviving human lineage, others once walked the globe. Extinct human lineages once found in Asia include Neanderthals, the closest extinct relatives of modern humans; Denisovans, whose genetic legacy may extend from Siberia to the Pacific islands of Oceania; Homo erectus, the most likely ancestors to modern humans; and the hobbitlike Homo floresiensis, who lived in Indonesia. These all are hominins — the group of species consisting of humans and all their relatives after the split from the chimpanzee lineage.

Read on ..

Clouded leopards could be reintroduced to Taiwan

Clouded leopards from mainland Asian could be used to repopulate Taiwan

The Formosan clouded leopard was hunted to extinction in Taiwan in the 1980s, but it might get a new start on the island in the future, according to Scientific American.

Two years ago, after a 13 year search, scientists concluded that the leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura) had gone extinct in Taiwan.

But a new paper by the same scientists states the island’s ecology has improved so much since the leopards disappeared that they might once again thrive there.

Clouded leopards disappeared from Taiwan decades ago, probably in the 1980s after intense overhunting for their furs followed by destruction of their forest habitat and declining populations of the cats’ prey species.

However, Taiwan has been so successful in slowing deforestation and protecting its other wildlife over the past few decades that the island could once again support populations of leopards.

Continued ...

A new land snail species named for equal marriage rights

Date:

October 13, 2014

Source:

Pensoft Publishers

Summary:

With more than 300 land snail species, Taiwan holds a remarkable diversity of these creatures and still continues to surprise. During a recent study scientists discovered a new endemic snail species of the genus Aegista from eastern Taiwan and named it to support recent efforts for equal marriage rights -- same-sex marriage rights -- in Taiwan and around the world.

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New species of stink bug found in Kenting - via The Anomalist

Publication Date：08/07/2014

Source： Taiwan Today

An international team of entomologists led by scientists from Taiwan has identified a new species of stink bug in southern Taiwan’s Kenting National Park.

The only other place the bug, named Amblycara innocens Tsai and Redei after two of its discoverers, has been found is Palawan Island in the Philippines.

The findings were published by Taiwan researcher Tsai Jing-fu from Hokkaido University in Japan and Hungarian Dávid Rédei at mainland China’s Nankai University, in the entomological journal of the National Museum in Prague, Czech Republic.

According to Tsai and Rédei, the finding for such zoogeographically disjunct dispersal between Taiwan and Palawan provides a new interpretation that the new species disperse within the same landmass Sunda Shelf during Pleistocene glacial cycles, either through a northern route from the current China (from Palawan to Taiwan), or by a southern route through Borneo (disperse from Taiwan to Palawan).

“Based on studying specimens of this genus from different geographic areas, we can obtain clues about how Taiwan interacted with surrounding islands in the past,” Tsai said. “This is solid taxonomic work that sheds light on East Asian biogeography.”

Prior to the team’s work, the Oriental and Austro-Pacific stink bug genus Amblycara Bergroth was considered to contain only one species—A. gladiatorial—whose range stretches from India to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Fiji.

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Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin sanctuary set up in Taiwan

The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin has a new ally in the government of Taiwan

A dwindling population of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins will be protected with the creation of Taiwan’s first marine wildlife sanctuary. Dolphin numbers have dropped by around 50 per cent according to local conservation groups, because of habitat degradation, industrial expansion and pollution.

Tsai Chia-yang, head of the Chuanghua Environmental Protection Union, said: “Indo-Pacific dolphin population is a key index to measure the health of the maritime environment.” 

The Council of Agriculture confirmed the sanctuary, which will be off the west coast of the country, will cover a large area of 76,300 hectare (188,461 acres).

Normal fishing in the area will be unaffected, as the government said a total ban was not feasible as the success of the sanctuary depends on the cooperation of local fishermen, but guidelines have been tightened for operators in the region and there will be tough punishments for illegal fishing of the endangered species. Dredge fishing has also been banned.

Continued

Green Flame Moths: Scientists Discover Two New Limacodidae Species from China and Taiwan

Oct. 29, 2013 — The representatives of the Limacodidae moth family are widely known as slug moths due to the resemblance of their stunningly colored caterpillars to slug species. Within this popular family the Parasa undulata group is perhaps one of the most intriguing, due to the beautiful green wing pattern typical for those species. In a recent revision, published in the open access journal Zookeys, scientists describe two new species from the group and provide a first record of a conifer-feeding caterpillar.

The two new species, Parasa viridiflamma and Parasa minwangi described from China and Taiwan both have the distinguishable green pattern typical for the group. They have a wingspan of averagely around 2 -- 2.5 cm and can be seen mainly in mid-elevations of mountains. The resemblance of the wing pattern of P. viridiflamma to mystical green flames has also inspired its name, derived from the Latin words viridis (green) and flamma (flame).

The revision of this group in Taiwan and China, compiled by Shipher Wu, National Taiwan University and Weichun Chang, Council of Agriculture, Taiwan, contains another intriguing discovery. The scientists provide the first record of a caterpillar from the group feeding exclusively on pine trees, Picea morrisonicola, in Taiwan.

"This case represents the first record of conifer-feeding behavior in this family as well as the first specialist herbivore in the genus. Meanwhile, the background match between Picea leaves and larval colouration is shared with other Picea-feeding insects. This phenomenon is worth further investigation in the aspect of convergent evolution of crypsis, or camouflaging, associated with a particular plant," explains Shipher Wu, one of the authors.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029133548.htm

Taiwan aquarium abandons captive whale shark in the sea – Strands twice

Aquarium must not be allowed to acquire a new whale shark

July 2013. Taiwan's National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium 'released' a whale shark into the wild that it had held in captivity for 8 years. The Whale shark was released with no preparation for life in the oceans, and was not tagged to enable scientists to track the animal in an effort to help it survive.

The animal had been kept in a small tank where it spent its life swimming slowly in one direction around the tank. The shark was released into the sea much too close to the shore; on release the shark continued to swim in a similar pattern to its pre-release and shortly afterwards stranded on the shoreline, not once, but twice. The shark was eventually re-floated on the first occasion thanks to efforts of the coast guard, local fishermen and conservation workers, but it is not known what happened to the animal after that. The aquarium cliamed that the animal was last seen swimming out to sea, but those who had helped rescue the animal stated that it was already badly injured, and was last seen being towed on the end of a rope out to sea by a boat - They believe it had no chance of surviving, if it wasn't already dead.

Not a release, but an abandoning

The method that was used for this so-called release appears to be that the over-riding priority was to get rid of the whale shark, with no thought given to its wellbeing.

The Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) have been urging the aquarium to release the captive whale shark and not to bring in new ones.

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Conference turns spotlight on Taiwan’s turtles - via Herp Digest

07/02/2013, Taiwan Today --Taipei Zoo hosted July 2 the Turtle Conservation in Action Conference 2013, a major international event focusing on global efforts to protect endangered species such as the endemic yellow-margined box and Asian yellow pond turtles.

The location of the meeting was particularly pertinent as the ROC capital is host to the island’s largest and most stable population of the two species, in the Feitsui Reservoir catchment area, Taipei City Government announced.

“Conservation of turtle species in Asia has long been a major global issue,” said Liou Ming-lone, commissioner of the Taipei Feitsui Reservoir Administration. “The high economic value and easy transport of wild turtles means they are in unprecedented danger throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, including Taiwan.

“This is especially true of the yellow-margined box and Asian yellow pond turtles. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has placed them on its red list of endangered species, and they are also covered by the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.”

Turtle conservation experts visited the reservoir on the eve of the conference to examine efforts to preserve the endangered turtles. The group included Peter Paul van Dijk, the chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, and Sung Yik Hei, the head of conservation at Hong Kong’s Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden.

Conservation measures taken by the TFRA over the past 20 years have yielded concrete results, Liu said. Since 1996, more than 400 different individuals of the two endangered species had been recorded in the reservoir area, making them the island’s largest and stable population, according to a survey conducted by Chen Tien-hsi, professor of the Institute of Wildlife Conservation at Taiwan’s National Pingtung University of Science and Technology.

TFRA has already requested the Forestry Bureau under the Council of Agriculture to upgrade the protection status of the reservoir’s catchment area, so as to provide the wild species with an undisturbed habitat, Liu said. (SDH)

Taiwan’s clouded leopard declared extinct

Leopard subspecies has disappeared from Taiwan

April 2013. After an unsuccessful 13 year search for the Formosan clouded leopard, the species has been officially declared extinct. The last known sighting was in 1983 by a hunter, though a few reports of pugmarks persisted into the 1990's.

The cat was dependent on primary forest, very little of which remains in Taiwan. Extensive logging and some hunting are considered the reasons for the cat's disappearance.

Read more on Focus Taiwan 

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/taiwan-leopard.html

Asian long-tailed skink (Eutropis longicaudata) will aggressively defend their eggs from predators such as snakes – via Herp Digest

Press Release, James Cook University, Australia, 1/29/13

A particular species of lizard will aggressively defend their eggs from predators such as snakes, a James Cook University researcher has found.

Dr David Pike, lecturer in JCU’s School of Marine and Tropical Biology, has helped produce a study titled Predation drives inter-population differences in parental care expression, which was recently published in the British-based Journal of Animal Ecology.

The paper was co-authored by Wen-San Huang, a researcher at the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan, Si-Min Lin, an academic at National Taiwan Normal University, and Sylvain Dubey, a researcher at University of Lausanne.

Dr Pike said the research, which was conducted on Orchid Island off Taiwan, found mother lizards attacked snakes that attempted to raid their nest.

The species involved were the Asian long-tailed skink (Eutropis longicaudata) and an egg-eating snake (Oligodon formosanus).

“Among lizards in general, it is quite rare to find a species that stays with the eggs until they hatch, but the long-tailed skink that we studied is among the few species that do guard their eggs,” Dr Pike said.

“We found that the lizards will aggressively defend their eggs from predators - even snakes.”

Dr Pike said it might surprise people that lizards could deter a predator as formidable as a snake.

“Many snake species readily eat lizards, so with the species we studied, we found we were either dealing with a very unique lizard or very wimpy snakes,” he said.

“Lizards can be very aggressive towards snakes, as most mothers can be when provoked, but this snake species was only interested in eating the lizard eggs, and not the mother lizard.”

The physical attributes of the two were also a factor in the phenomenon, he said.

“The lizards are also pretty big and the snakes don’t get very big. This allows the lizards to attack snakes without fear of being eaten,” he said.

“The lizards understand that the snakes will not eat them, and as a consequence will fiercely attack snakes that enter the nest."

“By deterring snakes these mothers ensure that their eggs will hatch.”

Dr Pike said an interesting part of this unusual lizard-snake relationship was that the Asian long-tailed skink only protected its eggs on Orchid Island.

“On nearby islands, this same lizard species lays the eggs and leaves them to face nature’s fate alone,” he said.

New research had shed light on why this behaviour had evolved in nature, he said.

“The reason that mother lizards attack snakes is very clear – mothers who protect their eggs have more babies than mothers who abandon them. This behaviour happens only on Orchid Island because there are many more egg-eating snakes there than most other locations.

“In fact, when researchers transferred individual lizards from their home island with very few snakes to Orchid Island, which has lots of snakes, female lizards changed their behaviour and became good mothers.”

In contrast, when the nest-defending mothers were moved to islands with few snakes, these females decided not to guard their eggs, because of the small chance that they would eaten by snakes.

“So, it turns out that almost all long-tailed skinks can and will be good mothers by protecting their eggs from snakes, but only when there are lots of snakes hanging around,” he said.

“This shows that motherhood can be dependent on the risks that the offspring face during their most vulnerable period, the egg stage, and can vary according to the threat of predation.”

Dr Pike said he had been involved in the study for two years, but his collaborators in Taiwan had been studying the Asian long-tailed skink for 15 years.

For more information, interviews or photos, please contact Dr Pike on 0448 433 785.

JCU Media contact: Caroline Kaurila (07) 4781 4586 or 0437 028 175

Rare birds reared at home after being found by construction worker

Taipei, June 18 (CNA) Three Formosan blue magpie chicks discovered on a mountain path were reared at home by a construction worker for five days until they were identified as being a rare Taiwanese species, police in Keelung City said Monday. 

A construction worker, surnamed Yu, found the three chicks in a bird's nest that had fallen on a path near a construction site on a mountain in New Taipei where he worked, police said. 

He reared the birds at home for five days until his friend recognized the birds' characteristic long-tails and suggested they might be Formosan blue magpies, also known as "long-tailed maidens of the mountains," which is Taiwan's national bird, according to the police. Yu took the birds to the police and they were subsequently checked by experts, who identified the birds as being Formosan blue magpies, a rare and protected species. 

The chicks will be reared by experts at Keelung's Agriculture and Forestry Department until they are able to fend for themselves in the wild. Police said Yu had not violated the country's Wildlife Conservation Act as he had not hunted, sold or publicly displayed the birds. Hunting, selling, or buying protected animals in Taiwan can result in a maximum prison sentence of five years and/or a maximum fine of NT$1.5 million (US$50,206), according to the act. (By Liu Li-jung and Ann Chen)

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1950013

Marathon-style bird watching race ends on high note

Taichung, April 14 (CNA) A total of 152 species of birds were spotted in a marathon-style bird watching competition in a recreation area in central Taiwan that concluded Saturday with contestants in high spirits after their adventure. 

Winning team "Brown Shrike" from Pingtung County, which observed 101 kinds of birds during a 24-hour time frame, said it was proud to be part of the bird-watching family and contribute to the massive field survey. 

"It was fun to look for birds in the woods with so many guys," said 43-year-old team leader Lin Chih-Hsien of the competition held in Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area. 

Lin and his teammates captured the honor after sleeping for only three hours between 11 a.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday and chasing after rare birds such as the Black Eagle, the Swinhoe's Pheasant and the Collared Owlet. 

According to organizers, at least three members of a team had to see or hear a bird at the same time for it to be recorded. Last year, 141 species of birds were observed by about 100 participants. 

"It frankly requires birders' instincts to get the job done, the same kind of instincts that help women tell if fashion brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton are nearby," said Chen Te-chin, division chief of Taiwan's Chinese Wild Bird Federation. 

In its second year, the competition drew 160 participants grouped in 40 teams from seven countries -- including the United Kingdom, South Korea, China and Indonesia. 

Most of the contestants treated the race seriously, conducting intensive research on the ground and preparing strict time strategies before the start of the race. 

"Uh, I am not sure. Do we still have time for an interview?" was what one of the competitors, Mark Philippart, anxiously asked of a teammate when questioned by a reporter about how he was feeling five minutes after the race had started. 

The 42-year-old American's team from Taichung -- "Eastern Wind" -- spotted more than 70 different types of birds last year but still lost. 

"We came here to challenge ourselves again -- that's the most important thing," said his partner Liao Mei-feng, adding that the team ended up with nearly 90 species this time. 

In 2011, the winner team recorded 98 bird species in the 3,963-hectare park area that ranges from 1,000 to 2,996 meters above sea level and is home to at least 107 bird species from 32 families. 

Though the race focuses on tracking the park's biological diversity, its main goal is to raise environmental awareness. 

Sugihartini Sudardji, a 28-year-old from Indonesia, said the serene surroundings and bird sounds made it a unique trip for her. 

"I hope people will learn to embrace nature through events like this and keep Dasyueshan just the way it is forever," she said. 

(By Lee Hsin-Yin) 
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aALL&ID=201204140017