In his book The Seashore Ecology of Hong Kong (co-authored with John Morton), Brian Morton – dubbed the father of marine ecology conservation in Hong Kong – wrote: Of all soft inter-tidal shores these are the richest in life; and…
This spring (2022), thanks to birding naturalist Paul Aston, I helped discover that the hills near Ngong Ping on Lantau island are good places for observing migrating birds of prey – especially Grey-faced Buzzards and Chinese Sparrowhawks, along with seeing…
Hong Kong is usually a poor place for seeing migrating birds of prey; on many days, you might be hard-pressed to see even one passing over. But on some days – and perhaps not every year, two species can be…
While there’s no apocalypse now in Hong Kong’s insect world, threats and changes are cause for concern – including for us humans It’s nightfall on a grey, gloomy day, at a car park amidst woodland in Hong Kong’s central New…
Over 500 species of birds have been recorded in Hong Kong, which is around five percent of all the world’s bird species – a remarkable figure that partly reflects the sub-tropical climate, setting on the south China coast, and the…
If you visit the Hong Kong countryside on the edge of the city nowadays, you might come across something that would have seemed remarkable 12 years ago, as the previous Year of the Pig began: a wild boar, or even…
If you happen upon a patch of brightly coloured flowers in a Hong Kong urban or country park, you may find they are also attracting brightly coloured butterflies. Chances are, these are swallowtails or close relatives, which include the largest…
As we (four researchers plus me) cruise the waters south of Lantau, scanning the sea for life but finding nothing other than occasional parties of gulls, Naomi Brannan chats matter of factly about her research work, and the current mission.…
Like canaries in a coal mine, endangered species are signs of danger facing planet earth, our life support system Perhaps for many people, learning of endangered species involves wildlife that lives “out there” somewhere – like giant pandas in bamboo…
Hong Kong’s last tiger was shot in Stanley, in 1942; prior to which this now extinct sub-species had become an occasional visitor to the territory. Though surely extinct in the wild now, South China Tigers were formerly widespread across southern…
Set on the coast of sub-tropical south China, Hong Kong is home to a wealth of wildlife, which is all the more astonishing for a place known mainly as a metropolis. With freshwater wetlands, hill forests and streams on hills,…
The end of November 2014 saw areas of inshore waters across Hong Kong and east Shenzhen turn improbably colourful thanks to extensive red tides. Night-time scenes were even more arresting, as seawater stirred by ferries or thrown stones flashed blue-green…