Wildlife in Hong Kong – really?  Yes, and I’m not talking about shoppers trying to get the latest handbag at Louis Viutton. The first thing that springs to mind when you think of Hong Kong is not necessarily wildlife, however, the territory has a vast amount of country and marine park areas. These are home to all sorts of beasties, mostly friendly, less so.  Living where I do in Sai Kung, just near the country park I get to see a fair amount of these beasties.  Here are some of those I have managed to capture on film.

a rarely seen wild pig

porcupine quills. I’ve yet to see the actual animal (shy & nocturnal)

Side view of the stick insect – you can see how long he (she?) is

another cool stick insect

caterpillar that Tali took delight in playing with. She was mostly gentle and we dropped it back into the grass.

My favourite beasty is the Golden Orb Spider.  They can grow to quite a large size  – the females anyway. The largest I’ve seen is probably about the size of a hand. They are not poisonous, they just look a bit fierce. They are very common where I live so I see them regularly, though their webs are not always in photo-convenient places!

The top side view of a female golden orb

having her lunch

The underside of a female golden orb

This is a male golden orb spider. He’s much smaller.

Male golden orb, at the edge of a female’s web

Here is a black spider (perhaps an all-black golden orb?) spinning her web. Amazing to watch!

View of the underside of a spider spinning in action!

A female in her high web. The smaller one is a male – they tend to approach with great caution

View from the hill near my house – taken through the web of a golden orb

Hong Kong is also home to some marine wildlife. The best known and rare are the pink dolphins.  They are actually Chinese white dolphins, but their skin can appear pink. Their numbers are shrinking rapidly due to pollution and damage of their habitat caused by construction. You can go on dolphin watching tours to get a glimpse of them.

These are the friendly ones I’ve managed to photograph.  Hong Kong is home to some dangerous snakes including large pythons, spotted by others, but not myself. We’ve had two poisonous snakes at our house. The first was a Redneck Keelback which Andrew manage to chase out of the garden after it had de-wedged itself out of a hole.  The other was a Chinese Cobra that decided to hole up between the outside wall of our house a some bags of cement. We had to call the police, who called the snake catcher for that one and sadly I was unable to get a decent picture (probably for the best as it was a rather angry cobra by then).

The last wild animal that I’ve seen is the feral cow. Yes, we have wild cows here. But I’m reserving a whole post for them! Here is a preview: