Taipei and Singapore will cooperate on wildlife preservation and education by exchanging endangered reptiles housed in their city zoos, according to Taipei Zoo June 7.
“We believe this move will bolster joint efforts aimed at protecting endangered animals and crack down on international smuggling,” Taipei Zoo Director Jason Yeh said.
Animals slated to participate in the program include four elongated tortoises, four red-footed tortoises and two yellow-footed tortoises. Taipei Zoo has experienced success in breeding these reptiles over the past few years.
The tortoises, which arrived in their new home May 27, will be featured in a new section at the Singapore Zoo set to open in 2012. In return, Singapore will send Taipei three rhinoceros iguanas and four Burmese mountain tortoises.
“The incoming rhinoceros iguanas include one male and two females. As Taipei already keeps one male iguana, this addition is expected to enlarge the population of endangered reptiles,” a Taipei Zoo official said.
But a spanner could be thrown in the works with the Forestry Bureau yet to greenlight the iguanas’ relocation to Taiwan as they are a threatened species listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Other Taipei Zoo international exchange partners include facilities in Vienna, Thailand and Moscow, all of which have offered dozens of snakes and other rare reptiles to Taiwan since 2003.
“These zoos routinely select animals from their surplus list to be exchanged, as prescribed in reciprocal agreements,” a Taipei Zoo official said.
Taipei Zoo is at the forefront of efforts to conserve endangered turtles and tortoises. In September 2009, the facility inked a pact with New York-based Behler Chelonian Center to reintroduce the critically endangered Burmese star tortoise to its natural habitat in the mountain forests of southwest Myanmar.
The agreement, which established closer international cooperation links in wildlife conservation, has seen a recovery in star tortoise populations.
Taipei Zoo began exchanging information and techniques with the BCC in 2008. This assistance proved invaluable in helping the facility increase its hatching rate for the animals.
Write to Kwangyin Liu at kwangyin.liu@mail.gio.gov.tw