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Mountain house closes for 2 months to stop bears

Mountain house closes for 2 months to stop bears

Mountain house closes for 60 days to stop bears

The Siangyang mountain house on the Jiaming Lake trail will be closed for two months to stop Formosan black bears from coming to search for food scraps in the house after 10 sightings of the animals so far this year, the Taitung Forest District Office said on Thursday. Jiaming Lake has become a popular hiking destination in recent years, with nearly 30,000 visitors every year, and the number of visits from April to June is close to 7,000. Such frequent visits apparently have not startled the bears. According to the forest office’s investigation, Formosan black bears were sighted twice in 2013, three times in 2014, four times in 2015, but 10 times in only two months this year. The Siangyang mountain house According to hikers and forest administration officials, a Formosan black bear mother with two cubs were spotted coming to the Siangyang mountain house to search for food, and a young black bear was seen searching for food scraps in the mountain house, while feces from black bears after eating food scrapes were also spotted near the house. Office director Liu Chung-lien said that a rough estimate put the number of Formosan black bears around the Jiaming Lake trail at six. “It’s not a good thing that black bears get close to humans,” Liu said. To prevent “conflicts between humans and bears,” experts suggested that black bears’ habit of coming to search for kitchen waste should be stopped by discontinuing such a food source, Lu said. Adopting experts’ opinions, the Siangyang mountain house will be closed from July 10 to September 8, during which time bear prevention facilities will be added to the house to safeguard safety of guests and food scrapes in the neighborhood will be cleared out, she added. Two months’ time should be enough to help the black bears “abstain from the habit,” Liu quoted experts as saying. During the closure of the mountain house, hikers can still come to visit the lake, but they have to stay at the camping site of the Siangyang National Forest Recreation Area.