Original Title:evil and ignorant Taiwanese at it again
out of 23 million Taiwanese there certainly is a good number of evil and ignorant people
Taiwan Quick Take: Hunters taking heavy toll
STAFF WRITER WITH AGENCIES
Monday, Oct 16, 2006, Page 3
Hunters are illegally killing 600 to 700 birds of prey every night in the south of the country, stirring outrage among bird lovers, a newspaper reported yesterday. Poachers use the cover of night to kill the migratory grey-faced buzzard eagles in an unpopulated area of Pingtung County, the Chinese-language China Times reported. On each of the past three nights, several hundred birds were killed, the paper said. Thousands of grey-faced buzzard eagles migrate through Kenting National Park in Pingtung County every September and October, circling the skies in flocks to the delight of bird watchers. But birds of prey are a popular dish here as well as in other Asian countries. Bird lovers are writing letters to urge local authorities to take action to stop the hunters, the paper said.
well that pertty much shuts me up huh? sitting here in california theres not a whole hecka lot i can do bout those birds in south Taiwan cept to try to yak it up and MAYBE someone or enough of us can create enough of a stir? so we can stop the stir-fry of these birds? Well i suppose i can write my congressman? Or where are those birds migrating from? Or to? Maybe those countries dont appreciate Taiwan roasting their birds?
p.s. my original title was just to attract traffic to this posting, even tho it WAS bit inflamatory.
I saw a guy in the foothills somewhere on the East coast once with 3 large dead birds of prey… I asked where he got them from and why they were dead, he told me he had killed them to eat… I told him there were supermarkets full of food and it wasn’t necessary to kill rare and majestic birds of prey, he wasn’t too pleased, I then pushed it a bit and told him that the chances are he was killing the spirits of his ancestors by killing those majestic birds… he was really not pleased with whitey’s advice on the matter…
Regrettably, the Taiwanese are to the Earth as cancer is to the human body… Future generations of Taiwanese will suffer for the shortsightedness of their predecessors, which ironically is the greatest revenge one could hope to exact on these cretins since all their money grabbing, filth creating, wanton wasting and destruction of nature is more or less done in the name of giving a better life to their offspring etc. The poetic justice would be beautiful if it didn’t come at such a horrific price to the innocent fauna and flora unfortunate enough to share this once beautiful island with them…
Sounds like baloney to me. I’ve seen those migrations, and unless the hunters are dead-eye dicks using space-age shotguns, they’re not shooting hundreds of these birds. The fly from thermal to thermal, usually at heights far, far out of range of any conventional weapon.
Think about it for a second. A regular shotgun has an effective range of what? 40-or-so yards for game birds, less for wild geese, so probably a lot less for a buzzard. So they must be shooting them with rifles. Under cover of darkness. In the fucking DARK? Yeah, riiiight.
I’m not saying there isn’t poaching going on. But it sure as HELL isn’t happening the way the “reporters” describe it.
The only practical way this can be happening is if the birds are coming down to roost at night and the hunters are picking them off the roost, which is do-able, of course. For maybe a few birds only, because what happens when you start firing a shotgun or a rifle at a bunch of sleeping birds? Of course. They fucking fly away.
700 hundred a night? Almost 5,000 a week? Gimme a BREAK!
That article is a total bunch of shite, I’m absolutely positive.
Those eagles are my flying companions every fall as they pass through. To me, they mark the start of the cross country flying season, blue skies, climbs to great heights. Since they are migrating, they don’t get territorial and/or aggressive at all, just circle in thermals alongside us and maybe slide over to see if we’re just as ugly up close. Often they’ll fly with us for 10 minutes or more, until they get bored with our lack of speed and race off elsewhere looking for a more able playmate. I wish they’d come join us in the LZ after our flight so I could buy 'em a beer.
Why anyone would rather see one on a plate than circling in the sky is just beyond me.
[quote=“sandman”]Sounds like baloney to me. I’ve seen those migrations, and unless the hunters are dead-eye dicks using space-age shotguns, they’re not shooting hundreds of these birds. The fly from thermal to thermal, usually at heights far, far out of range of any conventional weapon.
Think about it for a second. A regular shotgun has an effective range of what? 40-or-so yards for game birds, less for wild geese, so probably a lot less for a buzzard. So they must be shooting them with rifles. Under cover of darkness. In the fucking DARK? Yeah, riiiight.
I’m not saying there isn’t poaching going on. But it sure as HELL isn’t happening the way the “reporters” describe it.
The only practical way this can be happening is if the birds are coming down to roost at night and the hunters are picking them off the roost, which is do-able, of course. For maybe a few birds only, because what happens when you start firing a shotgun or a rifle at a bunch of sleeping birds? Of course. They fucking fly away.
700 hundred a night? Almost 5,000 a week? Gimme a BREAK!
That article is a total bunch of shite, I’m absolutely positive.[/quote]
Good detective work Sandman. You’re almost surely right, which is a relief to hear.
Park police are saying that while there still is some poaching going on, they patrol nightly at this time of year (when there are many migratory birds in the park) and so far they have not found any poachers. The report of thousands of dead birds posted on the internet by a birdwatcher and was itself second hand. The bird watcher had heard this story from ‘village elders’ from Lide Village in Manzhou Township, Pingtung.
I think there is cause for concern, but these reports need to be verified before we rush to judgement.
Sandy is right. They were hunting at night with what are described as ‘high tech gas-powered air guns with ultraviolet sights.’ Are there such guns?
Sounds to me like these “hunters” are shooting sleeping birds out of their nests.[/quote]All raptors are lazy biatches. They don’t work for food unless they have to, so they usually only fly when there is lifting air to carry them around. Flapping those big wings is hard work.
I don’t think they have great night vision either.
[quote=“jdsmith”]Do BOP even fly at night??[/quote]Aside from owls…almost never.[quote=“jdsmith”]Infrared scopes? maybe.[/quote]I doubt Ah-bin lang is out-fitted with thermal optics.[quote=“jdsmith”]SOunds to me like these “hunters” are shooting sleeping birds out of their nests.[/quote]I’d venture a guess that they might be using capture nets in the trees. Same as the dove poachers that were mentioned on here a while back.[quote=“jdsmith”]much akin to “jacking” deer by waiting in fields and hitting the spotlights on top of the truck. Frozen targets even a lush can’t miss. hyuk hyuk hyuk
ask TC. I’m sure he knows. [/quote]Not sure how these birds would react to being lit-up. Typically birds of prey like these are solitary hunters. They also tend to nest high and in hard to access places.
Only night light hunting I ever did was chasing 'possums as a youth, I never wanted to be associated with “shiners” who use this for deer.
Now I have heard that this technique is popular in Austrailia for 'roos and such. No 1st hand knowledge of that though.
Is any follow-up being done of who is buying and serving these birds?
As always…follow the money.
Yep, the last thing Skippy sees is usually a very bright light. Roos are nocturnal and the shooters are usually professionals fulfilling government culls. They want head shots as they sell the skins and the flesh usually goes for pet food.
A kangaroo won’t breed if there’s no water, and since humans have brought water where there was previously none via bores and so on, there’s more roos now than there’s ever been.
A kangaroo won’t breed if there’s no water, and since humans have brought water where there was previously none via bores and so on, there’s more roos now than there’s ever been.
HG[/quote]
hmmmmm *** wonders why he (me) hasnt bred even tho he has had plenty of water…***
As I suspected. An estimated 1,000 per year is shocking but not as shocking, and a lot more believable, as 5,000 per week. There still isn’t much in the way of verification of the figures, though, and I still struggle to see how they could be killing these numbers with airguns under the eyes of rangers and no doubt a lot of concerned birders.
I got a gorgeous view of a small hawk of some description just this morning at my taichi spot. Came shooting through the trees and over the flat area where we exercise, so low and close I could have touched it – close enough that the dog actually had the chance to snap at it as it zipped past! Close enough that I could clearly see the pupils of its eyes, nostrils, etc.
Those birds really have a – I don’t know how to describe it, other than a presence. When it had passed, me and the wife looked at each other and we shared the same feeling of something momentous having just occurred, like you’d feel if you’d just had a fighter jet go over your head or something. That’s the best I can describe it. Really weird, but uplifting.
Sandman is right on this. he knows about shot guns must be a real scot.
Infrared scope in Taiwan. No way!
Unless the military are involved.
Hunters could of course be baiting them in, but not in the numbers they say.
It will also be taking a lot of cartridges to shoot that many, not easliy available in Taiwan. Shot guns are not the kind of guns that are popular for smuggling and the legal ones are very hard to get in Taiwan. Most hunters here shoot deer with a rifle or bow. After hunting them down with dogs or letting them fall into a pit in the ground.
