From yellow vs blue in Hong Kong to black vs white in the States.
A world like now everything is politics, things pure as colors have become risky words, is keeping people to think less, speak less, and act less.
Category: Hong Kong
Interracial love also occurs in nature, though rare — Hong Kong newts (Paramesotriton hongkongensis) and Banded bullfrogs (Kaloula pulchra) co-exist in their natural habitats. They coulda been fighting for food. But they chose to form an alliance to defend each other as one.
Even species ain’t no matter. Why races?
Days of rainstorm brought this little fella to the mountain stream behind my backyard.
Not an easy find — the Big-headed turtle is a lesser-known endangered species native to Hong Kong, China, and SE Asia.
It is nocturnal and lives in and around mountain streams with fast-running water. Not a slow turtle at all. It is fast and can climb vertically like a master rock climber.
Platysternon megacephalum (Gray, 1831)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Superfamily: Testudinoidea
Family: Platysternidae
Genus: Platysternon
Species: megacephalum
See more of my encounters with Hong Kong Wildlife.
大頭龜, 鷹咀龜, 平胸龜, 鸚鵡龜
Categories
Hong Kong Monkeys | 香港獼猴
There are around 1,800 wild monkeys in Hong Kong. None of them are native to Hong Kong. They were introduced. There are 2 species in Hong Kong – Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta), Long-tailed Macaque or crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis), and their hybrids.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Cercopithecidae
Genus: Macaca (Lacépède, 1799)
See more of my encounters with Hong Kong Wildlife.
獼猴, 長尾獼猴, 恆河猴, 西藏短尾猴, 藏酋猴, 馬騮, 野猴
The Wild boars (Sus scrofa) is also known as wild swine, common wild pig, or simply wild pig.
Sus scrofa (Linnaeus, 1758)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Suidae
Genus: Sus
Species: scrofa
See more of my encounters with Hong Kong Wildlife.
野豬, 山豬
If you will ask “What is a horned toad?”
- Most people will have zero ideas.
- Those who are into herpetology or herpetoculture will easily name the horned lizards (Phrynosoma sp) which are commonly known as horned toads, even though they are some North American lizards, not toads.
- Some may think of the much more well-known horned frogs from South America (Ceratophrys sp). Not toads either.
- Only very few people know about this one to be genuinely called horned toads.
But don’t be too serious. Common names of animals are rarely preciously accurate. That is why scientific names are to matter.
The Short-legged horned toad (Megophrys (Xenophrys) brachykolos) is also known as Peak spadefoot toad because it was first discovered in the Victoria Peak (locally known as The Peak), Hong Kong.
Its subtleness comes from its discreteness – It is a tiny little toad growing to less than 40-48 mm that burrows a lot and it is far from common. They are not easy to find at all!
Not to be confused with the common toad you can easily find, this species is pretty rare – Out of all 23 amphibian species of Hong Kong, there are only 3 endangered species – Hong Kong cascade frog (Amolops hongkongensis) 香港湍蛙, the most well-known Romer’s tree frog (Liuixalus romeri) 盧文氏樹蛙, and this toad.
Previously thought to be a subspecies of the Little horned toad (Megophrys minor). But molecular genetic evidence now supports its full species status. The 2 species are obviously different. The Little horned toad is absent in Hong Kong but much more common in southern China and Southeast Asia.
Not an endemic species – Other than Hong Kong, it can also be found in southern China and Vietnam. But it is hardly known outside Hong Kong. To be fair, it is even not known to most people in Hong Kong.
Megophrys brachykolos (Inger and Romer, 1961)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Megophryidae
Genus: Megophrys
Species: brachykolos
See more of my encounters with Hong Kong Wildlife.
短腳角蟾, 短肢角蟾
The Painted chorus frog (Microhyla butleri) has many other common names such as Butler’s narrow-mouthed toad, Butler’s pigmy frog, Butler’s rice frog, Butler’s ricefrog, noisy frog, or Tubercled pygmy frog.
Microhyla butleri (Boulenger, 1900)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Microhylidae
Genus: Microhyla
Species: butleri
See more of my encounters with Hong Kong Wildlife.
粗皮姬蛙, 巴氏小雨蛙
Because of its glamorous metallic colors, these were the popular bugs Hong Kong kids used to spend their springs and summers finding them in the bush back in the 1970’s to 80’s.
There are over 30,000 species of scarabs in the world.
In Hong Kong, the more common scarabs include The green chafer beetles (Anomala cupripes and Anomala corpulenta)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Superfamily: Scarabaeoidea
Family: Scarabaeidae (Latreille, 1802)
See more of my encounters with Hong Kong Wildlife.
金龜子, 金龜
Categories
Aliens In Hong Kong
Believe it or not? Aliens are everywhere in Hong Kong. There must be some around you. Of course, I am talking about alien species – the species introduced outside their original distributions. From house cockroaches, apple snails, fire ants, to vertebrate as below. These are all not native to Hong Kong.
Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus)
Whether if the Water monitor (Varanus salvator) is a native or introduced species is not confirmed. But many believe it is an introduced species.
Over 10-12 species of freshwater turtles can be found in the wild in Hong Kong. But only 5 of them are native.
- Yellow pond turtle (Mauremys mutica)
- Chinese stripe-necked turtle (Ocadia sinensis)
- Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
- Alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii)
- Common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
Also the Chinese box turtle (Cuora flavomarginata) and Amboina box turtle (Cuora amboinensis)
Birds introduced to Hong Kong includes:
- Rock pigeon (Columba livia),
- Asian emerald dove (Chalcophaps indica),
- Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri),
- Azure-winged magpie (Cyanopica cyanus),
- House crow (Corvus splendens),
- Huet’s fulvetta (Alcippe hueti),
- Silver-eared mesia (Leiothrix argentauris),
- Common myna (Acridotheres tristis)
And the critically endangered Yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea)
Mammals introduced to Hong Kong includes:
- Domestic cat,
- Domestic dog,
- Domestic ox,
- Domestic water buffalo,
- Long-tailed macaque,
And the only squirrel species in here – the Pallas’s squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus)
Red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus), or also called Crested bulbul, is a passerine bird in Asia, a member of the bulbul family. It is a resident frugivore found mainly in tropical Asia.
In Hong Kong, it is more common than most of other bulbuls such as the Sooty-headed bulbul (Pycnonotus aurigaster).
Pycnonotus jocosus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Pycnonotidae
Genus: Pycnonotus
Species: jocosus
See more of my encounters with Hong Kong Wildlife.
紅耳鵯，又名紅頰鵯，俗名高髻冠、高雞冠、高冠鳥、黑頭公、紅屎忽