- By Esme Yeh / Staff reporter
A one-year-old Formosan black bear whose foot was amputated after a snare trap injury has recovered and returned to the mountains in Miaoli County on Tuesday, with the given Atayal name “Bagan.”
The young male bear was found trapped by in a snare near the Sihmasian Forest Trail in the county’s Taian Township (泰安) at the beginning of this year.
It was given the name “Bagan” — meaning “summer” in the Atayal language — before being released into the wild by the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hsinchu branch on Tuesday.
A Formosan black bear named Bagan emerges from a transport crate during his release into the wild in Miaoli County on Tuesday.Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hsinchu Office
The name was given to the bear by elders of the local Atayal village of Banux, with their wish for the bear to grow up healthy and be rich in harvests.
The branch said Bagan’s case was reported to the local authority by village members on Feb. 4.
The branch immediately sent personnel to rescue Bagan in collaboration with village residents, the Shei-Pa National Park Headquarters and the Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute, it said.
The bear weighed about 30kg when rescued and reached 50kg after months of medical treatment, the branch said.
To help Bagan return to the mountains and adapt well, the veterinarian team in April began to train his wilderness adaptation capabilities, including foraging and climbing, it said.
The branch’s local work stations and village members also collected wild plants, such as velvet apples and ring-cupped oak fruits, for Bagan to build up a vegetarian diet, the branch said.
The veterinarian team in July began to observe Bagan’s approach and avoidance behaviors toward humans, it said.
Last month, the team judged that Bagan’s physical conditions, survival skills and wild behaviors met the requirements for reintroduction, the branch said.
They chose a mountainous area near the trail, but far from the Banux Village to release Bagan back into the wild, it said.
The branch said that it collaborated with local indigenous communities on setting up a black bear patrol team, and has held workshops to increase locals’ understanding of bear release and how they can address human-bear conflicts.
The branch has also set up a “conservation grocery shop” in the village to promote and sell improved snare traps, which it said would reduce the risk of trapping black bears.