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WILD CORNER
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Any sightings of civets, mongooses, ferret badgers, leopard cats, barking deer, pangolins and porcupines – live or dead - should be reported. Rare birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish, or unusual behaviour by common species, are also of interest, as are rare or interesting invertebrates and plants. If you think it is interesting, our readers probably will! Please give dates, times and localities as accurately as possible.
Pradip Nath (CUHK) and his wife came across a Barking Deer while jogging in Shing Mun at around 7pm on 28 May. The deer was seen on the jogging trail, about 1.5 km from the main Shing Mun Dam. It looked quite young. It had just come down onto the trail from the embankment, and was just as startled to see the jogging pair as they were seeing it. After a shocked few moments, it turned around and went up the thickly grown embankment and disappeared from the sight.
Paul Crow (KFBG) provided the following information: on the evening of 27 May, a security guard at KFBG came across an adult Pangolin whilst on routine guard duties. The animal was traveling along the road side approaching the lower helicopter pad in KFBG. This is the first sighting of a pangolin within KFBG grounds for approximately three and a half years though signs of their presence are often discovered. This animal was collected, weighted, photographed and micro-chipped before a successful release the following evening. It was judged to be a young adult of around 2-3 years old, which indicates the continued existence of a breeding population in Hong Kong.
In late March, Kevin & Kit Sinclair saw a Pangolin, about two feet long, walking across the concreted water works road that continues through Po Lo Tse towards the foothills of Ma On Shan. About 5pm. Very fast moving!
On 28 April, Captain Wong (KFBG) found a dead Ferret Badger in the beginning section of the road to Yung Shue O, Sai Kung. The animal was then photographed, and identified by Billy Hau and Michael Lau. The body was quite fresh.
Tony Stevens (NHS) provided the following information: on 12th January, at 3pm, a large Wild Boar was seen along Lady Clementi’s Ride opposite the South Island School about 20 yard from the road. The animal was large, weighing about 150 kg. It was startled at the sight of men and ran off.
Tony Stevens provided the following information: on 29/30 (unsure) January, a large Red-necked Keelback (Rhabdophis subminiatus helleri) was seen at Hok Tau Reservoir. The sighting of a snake at such low temperature was thought to be unusual.
On 11 June, Captain Wong saw Porcupine’s quill in Tai Po Kau along the Brown Walk.
On 11 June, Captain Wong saw very fresh regurgitates (the foam and bubbles of the digestive juice could be seen) of fresh grasses with digestive juice of possibly Barking Deer in Tai Po Kau along the Blue Walk.
On 18 March, Fiona Lok (HKU) found a Chestnut Spiny Rat Niviventer fulvescens sleeping in its nest inside a nestbox, which was 2.4m above the ground. The nestbox was put up on Machilus sp. and situated at the edge of a forest/ plantation at Pak Kung Au, Lantau.
On 27 July, Captain Wong (KFBG) saw two Porcupines on top of Kum Yum Shan, KFBG at about 20:00
A Ferret Badger was seen by Captain Wong (KFBG) near "Mountain Lodge", KFBG at about 20:30 on July 27. This is the first confirmed record of this species on the farm.
Call of a Barking Deer was heard by Captain Wong (KFBG) at Kum Yum Shan, KFBG at about 20:10 on July 27.
Kwok Hon Kai saw a Buzzard (Buteo buteo) kill a White-breasted Waterhen (Amauromis phoenicunis) in a mangrove plantation along a flood-control channel near Nam Sang Wai on 22 Dec 1999
Stephanie Crockett (Hong Kong Housing Authority) saw a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) in Homantin (opposite the Housing Department HQ) on 11 January where it spent about 2 hours on an air conditioner shelf eating a magpie.
In the breeding season of 2000 (April to June) Captain Wong, Dr. Kwok Hon Kai, Dr. John Fellowes, Flora KY Chan, Lee Kowk Shing (KFBG) discovered three new egretries in Hong Kong: small egretries of Chinese Pond Heron (Ardeola bacchus) near Peter Scott Field Centre at Mai Po, and at Lam Tsuen. One egretry of Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta) and Chinese Pond Herons at Ho Chau Leng, Au Tau, Yuen Long.
Lee Kwok Shing (KFBG) and I saw a male Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis) at Sandy Ridge near Man Kam To, Frontier Closed Area (FCA) on 18 April 2000. A nice villager also showed them a male Ring-necked Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) in captivity which he caught (illegally!!) on the hillside. Although the specimen they saw had sign of a clipped upper beak, there is a possibility that this species may have re-established themselves in HK. Villagers they met claimed that this species has always been around in FCA, and one gentleman said he saw female foraging with chicks in his fields on numerous occasions. Lily Ng and Michael Neumann (HKU) also photographed a healthy-looking male by Tan Shan River, NENT in April this year. This area, or the eastern side of FCA, may warrant more ecological study. Birders, for example, tend to frequent the San Tin-Mai Po side for obvious reason. Oh, I better not talk about the alleged South China Hare at Sandy Ridge and Lin Ma Hang... this is a scientific newsletter... Bosco Chan (HKU)
On 25 May, I saw an explosion of millions of small termites (anybody know the species?) trigger a lot of herp foraging along Lam Kam Road between 1900 and 2000h – many Asiatic Common Toads (Bufo melanostictus), an Asiatic Painted Frog (Kaloula pulchra pulchra), a Brown Tree Frog (Polypedates megacephalus), and (unusually) dozens of Bowring’s Geckos (Hemidactylus bowringii) on the pavements. John Fellowes (KFBG)
On 25 May, John Fellowes (KFBG) saw a dead Chinese Water Snake (Enhydris chinensis) on a side road near Lam Tsuen River at Hong Lok Yuen Roundabout.
Bosco Chan (HKU) and Lee Kwok Shing (KFBG) saw a dead Chinese Soft-shell Turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) floating in an overgrown ditch at Sandy Ridge near Man Kam To, within the Frontier Closed Area on 18 April 2000. Villagers reported that this turtle is relatively common in the vicinity. No soft-shell turtle farm is known from this area.
John Fellowes (KFBG) sighted two dead White-spotted Slug Snake (Pareas margaritophorus) one at Pak Ngau Shek on 15 May and one near Chung Uk Tsuen on 19 May
John Fellowes (KFBG) saw a dead Large-spotted Cat Snake (Boiga multomaculata) near Pak Ngau Shek on 17 May.
Stephanie Crockett (Hong Kong Housing Authority) saw large numbers (20-30) of dead Horseshoe Crabs washed up on the beach of Ma Lam Wat peninsular (facing Sai Kung) during the end of January.
On 16 May in Wong Chuk Yeung feng shui wood, Ma On Shan, John Fellowes (KFBG) encountered a member of the insect order Mecoptera. This aptly-named Scorpionfly (Family Panorpidae), about 1 cm in length, was recognisable by its stout scorpion-like tail, and a long, rather elephant-like proboscis. There are only some 500 Mecoptera species in the world, of which 60% are Panorpidae; members of this family occur in moist habitats in all major temperate and tropical regions except Australia. They feed primarily as scavengers on dead insects, but can also be herbivores. A quick consultation with other ecologists and entomologists revealed that scorpionflies have been sighted a couple of times before in Hong Kong, but no specimen has been collected and identified. This specimen flew away before the first record of it could be made. It is not known whether the Hong Kong species is/are forest specialists, but its occurrence in the Wong Chuk Yeung forest reinforces the site’s known importance as a biodiversity refuge.
The Luk Keng freshwater marsh has been disturbed by a group of people who are playing their remote controlled helicopters probably since the beginning of the 1999/2000 winter. A great noise impact resulted and there was no egret feeding in the marsh where the helicopters were. The players even built their own sheltered place in the dry areas of the marsh. The marsh is the largest freshwater marsh in HK, which supports some rare wetland birds including rails and bitterns. In addition, the marsh is also the most important feeding habitat of egrets, especially Cattle Egrets, nesting on A Chau. The current recreational impact could certainly reduce the ecological value of this marsh which was zoned as Conservation Area but no management is involved.
Captain Wong (KFBG)
On 25 June, Robert Davison (City University) saw a road-killed juvenile Mountain Water Snake (Natrix percarinata) about 50 cm long near Wu Kau Tang.
On 1 July, Robert Davison (City University) saw a Greater Green Snake (Opheodrys major) about 55 cm long crossing the water works access road that runs along the north side of the lower Shing Mun reservoir.
P.25-26
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