A “supermoon” is to occur tomorrow evening and again on July 14, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Friday.
A supermoon is a nonscientific term that typically refers to a full moon or new moon that coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth, or perigee, the museum wrote in a news release.
The perigee of the moon’s orbit is about 362,000km from Earth, and it is usually called a supermoon when it passes the point within 24 hours of being seen in the night sky, the museum said.
As the moon is to be 357,656.38km from Earth tomorrow, the event would be
Displays of vigor by two Asian black bears named Brown Sugar (黑糖) and Beary (貝兒) at Taipei Zoo during which they damaged small trees growing in their enclosure have prompted the zoo to take action to protect the saplings.
The zoo said Asian black bears are solitary animals whose activity range in the wild is about 50km2, which is five times the area of Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義).
The zoo said it strives to provide enough space and a rich environment for Brown Sugar, who appeared in Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s (李安) blockbuster movie Life of Pi, and Beary, who is part
Zoo veterinarians encounter many unexpected difficulties at work that require quick thinking and flexibility to treat the variety of creatures under their care.
The Taipei Zoo recently explained just a few of these challenges to highlight the hard work and ingenuity of its staff.
Small animals are especially difficult to treat, as many of the procedures, equipment and diagnostic techniques for larger animals are poorly suited to them.
For example, drawing blood from sugar gliders, snakes or geckos often does not produce enough to run tests, which is a headache for vets. They rely on blood diagnostics as a straightforward technique that offers
Taipei Zoo is introducing golden mantella frogs, yellow-banded poison dart frogs and rough knob-tailed geckos as part of its conservation efforts of endangered amphibious reptiles, the zoo said on Wednesday.
The species are part of a genetic diversification program with Singapore Zoo and arrived in Taiwan on March 16, it said.
The two zoos have close ties and regularly collaborate on conservation efforts, including by exchanging animals to ensure genetic diversity, it said.
In exchange for the three reptile species, Taipei Zoo said it would send four species of poison dart frogs to Singapore, as their population in Taipei is stable.
Taipei Zoo said
Escalators are involved in nearly half of all accidents reported on the Taipei MRT metropolitan railway system, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday, following an incident the evening before in which an escalator changed direction without warning.
At 10:26pm, an escalator bringing passengers up to the ticketing area from the platform at Xinpu Station on the Blue Line changed direction before stopping suddenly.
Four of the escalator’s approximately 30 passengers were injured, including one who was taken to a hospital and later diagnosed with a sprained ankle.
The MRT operator on Saturday apologized for the incident, saying that a preliminary investigation showed