Korean Fairy Pitta researcher visits Huben

Dr. Scott Lin of TESRI and Kim Eun Mi of the Jeju Wildlife Research Center measuring a Dusky Fulvetta.


South Korean Fairy Pitta researcher, Kim Eun Mi, of the Jeju Wildlife Research Center visited Huben as a guest of the Fairy Pitta Research Project headed by Dr. [Scott] Lin Reuy-shing from May 3rd-9th.

In February our colleagues at Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association sent two delegates to the Annual Jeju Wildlife Research Center Workshop on Jeju Island, South Korea. Korea's Jeju Island, along with Taiwan, Southern Japan, and Southern China are the breeding areas for the IUCN Red Listed Fairy Pitta Pitta nympha. Dr. R.S.Lin of the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute (TESRI) and Mark Wilkie of Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association delivered presentations on the Fairy Pitta in Taiwan.

Two of the goals of the trip were to establish cooperation on Fairy Pitta research between Korean and Taiwan researchers and to propose the use of standardised research methods for better comparison of regional data at an international level to help facilitate an international conservation plan. Following the Jeju Workshop, South Korean Fairy Pitta researcher, Kim Eun Mi, was invited to come and spend a week in Huben with Dr. Lin and his research team and to learn research methods and techniques used on Fairy Pitta in Taiwan.

Apart from spending time in the field and at TESRI, Kim delivered a presentation on Fairy Pitta research in Korea at the Fairy Pitta Cafe to the local people of Huben. She also made a brief visit to Tatachia, Yushan National Park with Lin and Wilkie.

Taiwan's Fairy Pitta arrive several weeks before Fairy Pitta arrive on Jeju Island, South Korea, in late May. This gave Kim the opportunity to work in the field with Taiwan's newly arrived Fairy Pitta before returning to Jeju for the start of the Korean Fairy Pitta breeding season. Kim will be incorporating some of Lin's research methods and techniques into her research this season to help standardise research methods for better comparison of regional data at an international level which will contribute to the establishment of an international conservation plan. A global Fairy Pitta census is critical to the formation of any international Fairy Pitta conservation plan. A Taiwan Fairy Pitta survey team is planing to visit Jeju in June 2009 to assist with a Fairy Pitta census of Jeju Island. To date, Taiwan is the only country within the Fairy Pitta breeding range to have conducted a complete national census. Plans for holding an international Fairy Pitta symposium in Jeju to coincide with the census are presently being discussed.

Also see:
Hushan's Fairy Pittas at the Jeju Wildlife Research Center Workshop in South Korea