WEBVTT

00:11.115 --> 00:13.825
In July 2018,

00:14.718 --> 00:19.159
a black bear cub was found without a mother

00:19.159 --> 00:21.980
near Nan-an Waterfall in Yushan National Park.

00:21.980 --> 00:24.903
Its size indicated it was around three months old.

00:24.903 --> 00:26.325
Without a mother,

00:26.325 --> 00:28.831
there was little chance it could survive in the wild.

00:28.831 --> 00:32.242
So we immediately initiated our captive release project,

00:32.242 --> 00:34.729
which was the first project of its kind in Taiwan.

00:34.729 --> 00:38.346
We currently want to train it to live independently,

00:38.478 --> 00:40.256
and then release it in the mountains.

00:55.780 --> 00:57.009
The Formosan black bear is

00:57.009 --> 01:00.859
Taiwan's largest terrestrial carnivore.

01:01.406 --> 01:04.204
It can weigh up to

01:04.204 --> 01:05.415
70 or 80 kilograms,

01:05.880 --> 01:08.634
and generally prefers a forest habitat.

01:10.737 --> 01:13.501
I have been researching the Formosan black bear

01:13.501 --> 01:14.696
for 24 years.

01:14.875 --> 01:17.846
When I first began studying black bears,

01:17.846 --> 01:21.846
there was very little information about them in Taiwan.

01:21.846 --> 01:24.137
One important research task is

01:24.148 --> 01:26.015
to capture and tag black bears.

01:26.015 --> 01:27.543
How do we catch them?

01:27.703 --> 01:30.499
I learned special techniques in the US.

01:30.533 --> 01:31.934
It's generally not difficult,

01:32.062 --> 01:33.972
but where can we catch them?

01:34.290 --> 01:36.115
We have to find the right places,

01:36.115 --> 01:38.542
and this has given me a lot of trouble.

01:38.555 --> 01:40.719
In the process of searching,

01:40.719 --> 01:43.534
I met an older indigenous man,

01:43.541 --> 01:46.108
who later became an important partner.

01:46.342 --> 01:48.787
He gave me a lot of information,

01:48.787 --> 01:50.861
such as where bears were likely to be found,

01:51.200 --> 01:53.513
and we investigated those places.

01:55.081 --> 01:56.434
Catching and tagging

01:56.434 --> 01:59.433
is a common method of studying wild animals.

02:00.015 --> 02:01.660
Capturing and tagging black bears

02:01.660 --> 02:03.315
is certainly no picnic,

02:03.741 --> 02:04.887
and can be dangerous,

02:05.289 --> 02:08.196
so it requires quite a bit of caution.

02:08.926 --> 02:11.010
After the animals have been anesthetized,

02:11.010 --> 02:13.900
the most important task is to attach a transmitter.

02:14.200 --> 02:16.203
After the transmitter has been attached…

02:16.203 --> 02:17.794
This is the most important task for us.

02:17.794 --> 02:19.437
We can then track its whereabouts,

02:19.437 --> 02:21.912
and determine its pattern of seasonal movements.

02:27.334 --> 02:28.904
I'm currently tracking two bears.

02:28.904 --> 02:31.128
They were caught in November 2018

02:31.128 --> 02:33.169
and March 2019.

02:33.169 --> 02:34.717
One is a male, and one is a female.

02:35.265 --> 02:37.328
Because their frequencies are different,

02:37.348 --> 02:38.940
I don't mix them up when tracking them.

02:40.340 --> 02:42.485
I will know they are nearby,

02:46.859 --> 02:47.915
when I hear the signal.

02:47.915 --> 02:50.396
The signal is loud when they are very close.

02:53.328 --> 02:54.761
You have to be careful when that occurs.

02:54.910 --> 02:55.843
If they are farther away,

02:55.843 --> 02:57.659
the sound will be weaker.

02:57.696 --> 03:01.137
Due to the radio waves:
There is a weaker sound when they are farther away.

03:01.450 --> 03:03.402
I don't hear any sound right now,

03:03.421 --> 03:04.653
which means that

03:04.653 --> 03:06.959
the animals are not within my detection range.

03:07.308 --> 03:07.971
That's okay,

03:07.971 --> 03:10.172
because they may move all over the area.

03:11.042 --> 03:13.534
Because they have large ranges,

03:13.893 --> 03:17.140
we have to track them over a broad area.

03:18.935 --> 03:20.632
We use satellite

03:20.653 --> 03:22.520
or radio tracking to find out

03:22.562 --> 03:24.939
where bears go during different seasons,

03:25.215 --> 03:27.294
and we can find out

03:27.294 --> 03:29.428
what they are eating from their feces.

03:30.337 --> 03:33.046
We have discovered through our research
that black bears mostly eat plants,

03:33.046 --> 03:35.612
and more than 80% of their diet consists of leaves.

03:35.612 --> 03:38.078
They eat tender sprouts and fruits.

03:38.078 --> 03:41.021
They eat different foods
throughout the different seasons.

03:41.264 --> 03:42.346
So that was how we found out that

03:42.346 --> 03:44.262
they are not totally carnivorous,

03:44.262 --> 03:45.828
but in fact omnivorous.

03:46.331 --> 03:48.431
They sometimes dine on the flesh of animals,

03:48.431 --> 03:50.653
like muntjacs and serow.

03:50.653 --> 03:52.578
They also occasionally eat the bodies of dead animals,

03:52.578 --> 03:54.718
like sambar deer and wild pigs.

03:54.718 --> 03:55.837
They will eat their flesh.

03:57.443 --> 03:59.603
Doesn't it look like wool felt?

03:59.898 --> 04:01.362
In fact it really is wool,

04:01.748 --> 04:03.721
but from a Formosan serow.

04:04.215 --> 04:05.700
Why is it here?

04:05.700 --> 04:08.765
It's because this is a black bear's feces.

04:08.956 --> 04:11.175
It may have caught a serow,

04:11.175 --> 04:13.466
or perhaps eaten a serow that was already dead.

04:15.680 --> 04:16.510
The Formosan black bear is

04:16.510 --> 04:18.693
an endangered, protected species in Taiwan.

04:18.693 --> 04:21.378
We have estimated that the bear population

04:21.378 --> 04:23.287
consists of around 400 or 500 individuals.

04:23.287 --> 04:24.962
This is probably a pretty accurate estimate.

04:24.962 --> 04:27.437
But since I started studying bears 20 years ago,

04:27.437 --> 04:29.485
this population of a few hundred bears

04:29.485 --> 04:31.618
doesn't seem to have changed much.

04:31.626 --> 04:34.343
That's mostly because the external threats they face

04:34.343 --> 04:36.793
have never been eliminated.

04:37.132 --> 04:40.625
The biggest threats are traps and hunting.

04:41.386 --> 04:43.950
A noose snare of this size

04:43.984 --> 04:45.809
is usually used to catch boars.

04:45.809 --> 04:48.218
Unfortunately, sometimes a bear cub

04:48.218 --> 04:50.361
happens to pass by,

04:50.390 --> 04:52.459
or maybe an adult bear.

04:53.650 --> 04:55.496
So what may happen is that the snare

04:55.496 --> 04:57.723
catches the bear's four toes.

04:58.137 --> 05:00.587
It can't easily break the snare

05:00.800 --> 05:02.731
because it can't bite through it.

05:02.731 --> 05:04.181
The bears just can't do it.

05:06.200 --> 05:08.629
Among all the bears we have caught and tagged

05:08.644 --> 05:10.306
during the past 20 years,

05:10.306 --> 05:11.982
more than 30—one half—

05:12.528 --> 05:14.781
had lost front or rear feet.

05:14.781 --> 05:16.603
Some of the bears that are caught in snares

05:16.628 --> 05:18.812
are already missing feet.

05:18.812 --> 05:20.487
Some we are able to save,

05:20.511 --> 05:22.265
but have to amputate their feet

05:22.272 --> 05:26.155
because the noose has encircled their foot

05:26.400 --> 05:27.737
and cut off circulation,

05:27.737 --> 05:28.990
which has caused necrosis.

05:29.124 --> 05:31.884
By the time we get to the scene,

05:31.890 --> 05:33.915
some bears have chewed off their toes

05:33.915 --> 05:35.259
in an effort to escape.

05:35.491 --> 05:38.800
They mutilate themselves by chewing off their toes.

05:39.267 --> 05:40.540
This is why I say that

05:40.583 --> 05:41.913
the people of Taiwan

05:41.913 --> 05:45.178
pose the biggest threat to black bears.

05:50.418 --> 05:53.028
Conservation is basically a series of challenges.

05:53.377 --> 05:54.658
It is a never-ending process.

05:54.658 --> 05:57.459
Because there are so many difficulties,

05:57.459 --> 05:59.156
it is extremely frustrating.

05:59.156 --> 06:01.231
I find that I ask myself

06:01.231 --> 06:03.187
whether I am nuts to come here

06:03.235 --> 06:05.378
and do this thankless work.

06:05.392 --> 06:06.071
I do.

06:06.071 --> 06:07.737
I do think of giving up.

06:07.737 --> 06:11.285
But front-line field black bear researchers in Taiwan

06:11.364 --> 06:12.856
are very few in number.

06:12.860 --> 06:15.300
If I don't work on behalf of bears,

06:16.346 --> 06:17.853
no one else will.

06:20.084 --> 06:21.853
I once went to Kaohsiung

06:21.853 --> 06:24.134
to investigate some indigenous residents.

06:24.134 --> 06:25.857
When I interviewed a hunter, he said,

06:26.256 --> 06:29.690
It feel like we lost the most important spirit
of the mountains.

06:30.385 --> 06:32.465
I was really moved by this.

06:33.034 --> 06:34.375
As far as I am concerned,

06:35.018 --> 06:37.475
if the mountains had no black bears,

06:37.997 --> 06:39.610
I think this would also be

06:39.610 --> 06:41.413
a human tragedy.

06:46.843 --> 06:50.493
When you have an interest that gets your heart racing,

06:51.152 --> 06:53.565
when you can do what you love the most,

06:53.729 --> 06:57.029
and really put effort into what you love,

06:57.029 --> 06:59.469
I believe that's the most wonderful thing.