Over a period of several days, research organizations and experts made a thorough clinical study of living and dead birds, isolating and identifying the infectious bacteria, conducting pathological examinations, and carrying out toxicological assays. On December 16, the COA announced that type C1 botulism had caused the spoonbills' deaths. Responding to questions about how the spoonbills had contracted botulism, the COA offered this possible scenario: A recent cold front had killed fish being raised in fish ponds near the spoonbills' nesting site, and rotting fish can contain the type C1 botulism bacterium. Spoonbills usually eat only fresh fish, but this year more spoonbills than usual are wintering in Taiwan, increasing the competition for food. Given these circumstances, the COA speculates that constrained by the limited availability of fresh fish, the spoonbills' hunger may have driven them to eat the rotting fish from the ponds.

In identifying the cause of death, the COA made clear that the spoonbills did not die from manmade causes, such as water pollution or agricultural pesticides. Moreover, by showing that the birds had food in their stomachs at the time of their deaths, the COA refuted widespread speculation that they had died of hunger.

With only about 900 black-faced spoonbills left in the world, the species is facing extinction. In fact, its existence is so precarious that it is listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species as an Appendix-one species (those most in danger of extinction).

The black-faced spoonbill is a member of the Threskiornithidae family of birds. Their breeding grounds are in northeastern China and Korea, but the birds winter on broad tidal flats in southern China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. Local birdwatchers first recorded sighting black-faced spoonbills in Taiwan 17 years ago in the Chiku Wetlands at the mouth of Tainan County's Tsengwen River. Since then, the Chiku Wetlands have become the birds' favorite winter home; 500-600 of them winter here every year. In 1992, Chiku Township began planning an industrial park in this area. Conservationists fought the initiative and eventually built a national consensus to "set aside a piece of pristine land for the black-faced spoonbills." The birds' nesting grounds were thus preserved, and scholars gradually began to get involved in research and conservation.

Since then, the birds have been coming every year, and diligent work by the township and birdwatchers has succeeded in keeping their numbers stable. This winter, the spoonbills touched down as lightly as usual, and no one anticipated the catastrophe that awaited them at their most-trusted winter home. On December 9, the strongest cold front of the season blew through. That evening, workers posted at the reserve discovered ten-odd birds that had fallen to the ground. Although immediate action was taken to save the birds-workers kept them warm and fed them glucose-most died. By December 22, 70 birds had fallen ill, of which 63 had died.

The sudden deaths of the spoonbills not only once again highlighted the ever-worsening state of Taiwan's coastal environment, it also raised concerns about whether previous efforts to conserve the reserve had been effective. To date, the Tainan County government has only protected one-eighth of the 5000 hectares of wetlands in which the birds forage, and testing equipment has yet to be installed in even this area. Meanwhile, there has been a sharp increase in the numbers of recreational facilities, fishponds, and oyster trays on the edges of this area.

Botulism is, in fact, one of the most deadly pathogens afflicting migratory water birds. Liu Pei-po, a former director of the Taiwan Provincial Research Institute for Animal Health, has written that when fish farmers in the Chiku Wetlands clean and drain their ponds, many fish and other aquatic creatures are washed out. These die and then rot, creating an ideal incubator for the botulism bacterium. This past summer was very dry, lowering the water levels in the wetlands. The drying out of the tidal flats killed off large numbers of fish and invertebrates, which, in turn, provided incubators for the botulism bacterium in the soil.

In the winter, water again permeated the ground that summer had dried out, and the botulism toxins that had accumulated in the rotted fish were ingested by water-borne invertebrates or sank to the bottom. The toxins were then ingested by the black-faced spoonbills, causing a mass die-off. What really concerns conservationists is that in wetlands where there have been instances of botulism, botulism often thereafter recurs annually among the wild water birds that forage there.

In the public eye, the conservation of the black-faced spoonbill involves tradeoffs between conservation and development, and raises questions about how much of a sense of urgency Taiwan, where approximately 70% of the global population of black-faced spoonbills winter, has about saving the birds from extinction. How aware is Taiwan of this "global responsibility?"

To address these issues, conservation groups are urging the government to improve water levels and water quality in the areas where the birds winter. They also want the government to remove illegal fishponds, oyster trays, and power lines from within the wetlands. They suggest that the government follow the model used in water bird preserves abroad, such as the Japanese Crane Reserve in Hokkaido, Japan. There, when food is short, workers provide the cranes with fresh fish to stave off the kind of hunger that might drive them to eat rotten fish.

In response to questions raised by conservationists both in Taiwan and abroad, COA vice chairman Lee Jen-chyuan stated that this has been a painful experience, and demonstrated that the management of wildlife preserves had to be further improved. Lee also expressed the hope that the incident would encourage the people of Taiwan to give more thought to conservation.

The COA will work with the Tainan County government to establish the Black-faced Spoonbill Research Center and has already allocated money in its 2003 budget for expenses. The COA hopes that building a better site with better equipment for studying and rescuing injured spoonbills will move the work of conservation forward. Of course, local environmentalists hope that Taiwan's conservation activities won't be limited to the black-faced spoonbill. After all, Taiwan's other wild species are also hoping for our help.