Nan'an bear cub's release secretly filmed by TV station, conservationists and public outraged and worried
On April 30, under the planning of the Forestry Bureau, the release plan for the Nan'an bear cub Mei-zai was carried out. Unexpectedly, the Black Hawk helicopter transporting the cub Mei-zai to the release site actually carried people unrelated to the mission, and even secretly filmed Mei-zai. Huang Mei-hsiu, the "bear mother" who had been caring for the cub and carrying out its complete wild-training program, upon learning that the TV station had broadcast the release process as a big exclusive, was so angry that she wrote the word "fraud" bluntly on Facebook. The act of secretly filming and broadcasting the process and location of the Nan'an bear cub's release made the public, who had been following Mei-zai's journey for these 9 months, very angry.
This TV station heavily promoted and broadcast the release process as an exclusive on the 2nd, drawing harsh criticism from conservationists. Under pressure from all sides, the TV station took down the video, but the damage had already been done. The Forestry Bureau of the Council of Agriculture issued a press release that evening, reconstructing the key to how the TV station was able to exclusively follow and film the release operation.
Forestry Bureau reconstructs how the National Airborne Service Corps insisted on letting the TV station board the aircraft to film
On April 23, the Forestry Bureau held a "The cub is going home" press conference, at which it had already told the media that the release process would not be open to media filming, that the authorities would record and provide footage, and the media all agreed. Reconstructing the sequence of events, the Forestry Bureau pointed out that on the day before the release, "on the evening of April 29, Hsia Jung-sheng, head of the Conservation Division, received a notice from Secretary Lien of the public relations office of the National Airborne Service Corps of the Ministry of the Interior that two people from Next TV would board the aircraft together, but only to accompany the Hualien base of the National Airborne Service Corps in producing a feature, and asked Hsia Jung-sheng to relay this to Associate Professor Huang Mei-hsiu of National Pingtung University of Science and Technology." The Forestry Bureau also said that the TV station had originally also requested to go to the Endemic Species Research Institute to film the cub boarding the aircraft, which they refused.
After the TV station's act of secretly filming and broadcasting the footage triggered intense public dissatisfaction, the Ministry of the Interior issued a statement stressing that it had communicated with the Council of Agriculture beforehand, and that the release of the video had also been approved by the Council of Agriculture: "A consensus had been reached beforehand that the video could only be released externally after approval by the Council of Agriculture. The video focuses on aerial documentation, and it is also hoped that it can awaken the public's conservation awareness and encourage everyone to jointly conserve wildlife." Not only was this denied by the Forestry Bureau, but the Ministry of the Interior's statement also failed to square with Huang Mei-hsiu's Facebook post and the content of the Forestry Bureau's press release issued that evening. Under pressure from dissatisfaction across all sectors, the Ministry of the Interior ultimately expressed regret and apology for the matter.
Chen Chi-chung: Completely unaware and never agreed to media filming of the release operation
Chen Chi-chung, head of the Council of Agriculture, said in a media interview that he had no knowledge at all of any media following the Black Hawk helicopter to film the cub's release operation, and had certainly not agreed to let the media film it. The Council of Agriculture is a conservation agency, and it had agreed with the media beforehand that the goal was a successful release, requiring that the media not film that day.
Wang Hsiao-hu, chief executive officer of the Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association, said in an interview that the first rule of standard release operations is not to disturb, but what was seen in the TV report was the cub's gaze filmed through a narrow gap, which is not only an illegal act of disturbing wildlife, but also heartbreaking to watch. He lamented that everyone had done their utmost to raise the cub for 9 months, and the release arrangements had been perfect, yet unexpectedly it was undone by media following and filming, and the terrain and landforms of the release site were all captured by aerial photography. They were very concerned about the cub's safety.
Mei-zai is so smart! Has already run up to a 2,000-meter ridge line, far from humans
What is gratifying is that on the evening of the 2nd, Huang Mei-hsiu shared good news on Facebook: Mei-zai is now safe and sound. "After the cub stepped out of the cage door, she disappeared for a whole night, which worried us a lot; she may have gone off to hide. The next morning, the satellite location point appeared, and she showed up on a ridge line of more than 2,000 meters. Everyone was overjoyed. Good job, she ran a whole kilometer, so far. That is a very beautiful ridge line, a good choice!" "I only hope that after all these 'messing around' things down the mountain, everyone can relax a bit; we are all fine -- people and bear safe and sound."
