Buzzards and Owls and Bats, Oh My!

I take back what I said about the Fisheries Research Institute being my least favorite museum. It's now replaced with the Endemic Species Research Institute (aka the Stuffed Animals Museum). One interesting aspect of this Institute is their research done by citizens (aka road kill research). People can send in pictures and even real specimens! Then the location of the roadkill is located, to see if there's any trend in the animal's whereabouts. 





It's possible that my opinion of this museum was affected by my expectations of seeing real animals. Although we did see real animals, I prefer if they're alive. Learning is learning though, and I did discover a lot about the species of animals that only live in Taiwan. 

Here are some Oriental Honey Buzzards:

The female on the left is blind, while the male on the right has a lame leg. These buzzards mate for life and get their name from the fact that they love to eat honey. They'll wait around bee farms until the honey is harvested, because the bee farmers graciously toss them the used honey combs. Yummy. Their feathers are hard and scale like. I wanted to touch them, but of course couldn't. These ones are actually alive, because live at the Wildlife Rescue Center. Here, they rehabilitate, train, evaluate and sometimes release the animals back into the habitat. reminds me of where my friend Laura works. Except at this rescue center I only saw birds, instead of the various animals she works with...raccoon, owls, foxes, rabbits, opossums, deer, bobcats and ducks are just some of the creatures she handles weekly. I wish she was here with me! 

Read for more information...if you can read Chinese

The animal which we learned the most about was the bat. It has a long lifespan, about thirty years because of how much time it spends hibernating. There were more than ten different species that we learned about. I've never actually looked at a bat so closely. They look a bit like cats with larger ears and wings.  

Two blurry babies and one blurry mom

Later on I went for a walk to the Butterfly Garden. I saw that someone else was going for a walk - a woman with a parrot! Probably from the Rescue Center.

While traveling to a temple that had been destroyed by an earthquake, Jimmy gave us more riddles for us to figure out. I am usually pretty quick at picking up on them, but others just stump me. Ask me later if you'd like to try some ;)

This is a shot of temple built to replace the one destroyed by an earthquake. It seems a shame to not try to repair the older one and I didn't discover the reason behind not rebuilding. We walked through an intact one and actually, I don't know what religion is practiced in them. I just felt curious about what every statue, piece of incense and fruit was for. Hopefully I'll find out later.