Porcupine! NUMBER 27

Newsletter of the Department of Ecology & Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong

Local Warming?

DECEMBER 2002

The Earth’s climate has warmed by 0.6oC over the past century and predictions for the next hundred years are that the global average air temperature will increase by 1.4-5.8oC (IPCC, 2001). Identifying a warming trend here in Hong Kong is made difficult by the local, warming, influence of increasing urbanization and the regional, cooling, influence of air pollution. However, 1998 was the warmest year on record in Hong Kong, the three years since have all been in the top eight, and this year may be heading for a new high. There is no reason to think that Hong Kong will avoid the global trend. Predicting the influence of global warming on plants and animals is not easy. Changes in temperature will be accompanied by changes in every other climatic parameter and, in any case, we know very little about the relationships between climate and species distributions. Mountains, however, are a relatively simple case: temperature declines in a regular way with altitude (about 0.6oC per 100 m) and physiological tolerance of low temperatures often sets the upper altitudinal limit of species distributions. Global warming would be expected to lead to an upward shift in species ranges and this has already been documented in many parts of the world (Walther et al., 2002). For plants, which cannot take shelter from extreme conditions, the critical factor is likely to be the lowest temperature experienced, but other aspects of temperature may be more important for animals. In Hong Kong, plant diversity generally increases with altitude, because of the massive human impacts in the lowlands. The species composition of plant communities also changes gradually with increasing altitude, as frost-sensitive tropical species drop out and frost-tolerant non-tropical species increase (Zhuang & Corlett, 1997). How will climate change affect this pattern? If we take a mid-range prediction of a 3oC temperature rise by 2100, organisms would need to move 500 metres upwards to experience the same temperature regime as they do today. Thus a plant whose optimum temperature occurs at 200 m today would need to migrate up to 700 m by 2100, and one adapted to 700 m would ….ooops! …. run out of mountain. The highest point in Hong Kong is the Tai Mo Shan summit at 957 m, so any species now confined above 457 m by excessive lowland temperatures would be pushed off the top during the next 100 years. It is almost certainly not this simple. While there is good evidence that winter low temperatures set upper altitudinal limits for plant species in Hong Kong (Corlett, 1992), it is likely that lower limits are set by competition with the faster-growing species of lower altitudes. Thus the major effect of warming will be to ‘lift the lid’ on lowland plant distributions, rather than overheat montane species, although the long-term impact will be the same. Speculative? Improbable? Not at all. Since the last severe frost on Tai Mo Shan in December 1991, frost-sensitive tropical plants have spread 150-200 m up the mountain – a horizontal distance of more than a kilometre – invading communities from which they were previously excluded. It is too early to say that this reflects a long-term warming trend. Indeed, by the time you read this, another severe frost may have returned the situation to ‘normal’. But it does show how quickly things will change when global warming is for real. Richard T. Corlett (for bibliography see back page)

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Porcupine! NUMBER 27

December 2002

Newsletter of the Department of Ecology & Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong

Local warming 1 Editorial 2 DEB news 2 Feedback 3 Invertebrates 6 Vertebrates 7 Flora 11 Diversity at a glance 15 Miscellany 16 Publication review 27

Recent publications 29

Wild Corner 28

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

News from DEB The duty of writing these columns seems to come around with increasing frequency. Is it because Porcupine! is being published more often? I think not. More likely, it is one of the bi-products of age: the feeling that life seems to be speeding up relative to childhood when time (especially schooldays) seemed to drag. So what has happened since the last Porc! Can I get away with saying that there is no new news? (Knew news? Or Gnu news?) Perhaps I can get away with some old news. Or, at any rate, same old news. To be specific, I am still Head of DEB, and have just be re-appointed for another three years with effect from January 1, 2003. Why am I doing it? I began my career as an ecologist with an interest in field research, and some vague sense that I should be communicating my fascination about what I was finding out to others. Why is it that I now find myself primarily an administrator and manager (both tasks for which I have received no prior training), essentially desk bound, and teaching about none of the things that I spent almost 15 years studying in the field? Clearly, I must be barmy, or bonkers, or both. There may be some truth in that, but it is also a fact that no one else wanted the job. Well, why would they? It is no fun. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth doing. What makes it worthwhile is the fact that it is important. I write this not as a result of some megalomaniacal urge to convince you of my significance. (After all, if you have read this far ….) The real reason is that DEB has an important role to play in Hong Kong. What is it, exactly that we do? First, we teach students, at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Second, we carry out research on the plants animal and squidgy things (i.e. fungi et al.) in Hong Kong and the region. Thirdly, we try to apply what we have learned (and what we teach) in the local and regional context so as to make a contribution to the conservation and management of biodiversity. That application can occur in a number of ways. It may mean sitting on government advisory committees. It may mean assisting NGOs. It may even mean sitting for hours and hours on a jet plane on the way to an international meeting that consists of acrimonious and lengthy debates about whether one species or another not only deserves but actually gets legal protection. (I am referring here to Yvonne Sadovy’s recent experiences at the CITES meeting in Chile, p.16.) In short, work of DEB is about making a difference. It is neither hubris nor exaggeration to say it is about saving the planet – or at least bits of it. We try to change how people see the natural world and, by so doing, alter the way that they treat it. My job as Head is to ensure the smooth running of DEB so that Billy and Richard, Kenny and Benny, Yvonne and Kevin and all the others can do what they do best, without having the hassle of wondering if there will be a research budget for next year, or even if there will be any headed notepaper in the stationary drawer. Someone has to do it. Prosaic: yes. Fun: no. But it matters. David Dudgeon

Editorial Once again, many articles in this issue of Porcupine! reflect, in one way or another, concerns over losses in biodiversity and explore solutions to the various problems. Conserving biodiversity (a piece of the planet as David so aptly puts it) in the face of mounting human pressures requires teamwork. The biologists who understand the systems need the funders and administrative support to carry out their work. We need the appropriate legal framework and enforcement capacity to implement protective action. Public support for natural resource management and conservation is essential, as are the roles of the media and NGOs in raising public awareness and understanding of the importance of, and need for, protecting biodiversity. Political support is also needed, and, sadly, it is here that there is often little joy in Hong Kong. As a major importer of an enormous range of flora and fauna, a significant proportion of them potentially (if trade is not regulated) or actually threatened, government support for local and international conservation initiatives is critically important. Yet, for several recent CITES Appendix II proposals of species for which Hong Kong is a (if not the) major importer, and about which there is clear evidence of declines due to international trade (seahorses and humphead wrasse are examples - see p. 16), there was no government support. Appendix II listings do not prevent trade but ensure that whatever trade there is comes from sustainable practices and sources. As a major beneficiary of natural resources, there is no good reason not to take some responsibility and support such initiatives. Clearly there is a weak player; the challenge is how to strengthen the team.

Yvonne Sadovy

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FeedbackConservation : an empty word?!

Dear Feedback,

I feel that I must earnestly respond to Michael Lau’s refutationof Richard Corlett’s ‘empty forest’ article where, in feedbackof Porcupine! 26, he presents ‘in-situ conservation’ as ‘thealternative to experimenting on an ad hoc basis’.

In essence, Richard made the appealing prediction that ‘within50 years forest will cover Hong Kong.’ While acknowledgingthat secondary (or is it post-secondary?) forest covers much ofthe vegetated areas, he noted that some inaccessible orprotected feng shui sites provide seeds of a support system forthe slow return of a more biodiverse original vegetation. Allgood news … if true! Richard went on to argue that, someplanned reintroduction of ‘ecologically appropriate’vertebrates might restore ecological processes and, thus, helpto put the cries of long lost mammals alongside a chorus ofreturning birds. In short, fill an empty forest with life andsound! As someone who has tried to sleep in a pristineBruneian rainforest (yes the sultanate of Brunei Darussalam innorth Borneo does, in fact, have pristine forest!) I could notagree with Richard more. Our Hong Kong forests are, atpresent, rather quiet and almost empty.

Michael was, however, rather critical of the model. Citing thegeneralist guidelines of IUCN/SSC Re-introduction SpecialistGroup 1998 and Dodd & Siegel (1991) on just someexothermic vertebrates, he contended that reintroductions were‘risky’ and that because ‘we still lack a conservation policy’(in HKSAR) our efforts in HK and southern China ‘could bebetter spent in in-situ conservation’.

I would like to put a whole new spin on both the Corlett modeland the Lau alternative. For far too long in Hong Kongenvironmental circles, people of all colours in the conservationspectrum have talked about more conservation here and moreprotection there and more laws (ordinances) everywhere tosave our environment. Where has it got us? Where will it getus? The time has come for a bold new paradigm. The centralemphasis today should be on eco-restoration not more‘conservation’. Indeed, the word conservation has developed ahollow sound. It may be empty. New life and energy must beput into our entire Country Park and Marine Parkprogrammes. Give nature more time?! Not so apt anymore!How many more reports, theses and papers must we write andread about our degraded Hong Kong and south Chinaecosystems? Surely we have enough confidence in ourecology to take some brave, new steps in ecological repair.Such steps involve us in far more than giving nature moretime. Restoration is an acid test for ecology (Bradshaw, 1987)

and planned reintroductions an acid test for restoration.Besides, as Hobbs and Huennake (1992) have concluded,since nearly all ecosystems are likely to be nonequilibrial inthe future we must be activists in determining which species toencourage and which to discourage. They go on to argue thatwe in conservation cannot just manage passively or formaximal diversity, but must be selective and tailormanagement to specific goals.

Need we in Hong Kong and within the DEB fear providingsuch much needed conservation leadership? No we do not! AsBush (2000) predicts, restoration ecology might be the nextthrust for conservation. I totally agree. In the U.S.,reintroductions within restoration ecology have helped tobring some key species back from the brink of extinction.These include the American bison and the gray wolf. Recentfarming Journals in New Zealand (Straight Furrow April,June, August 2002) report numerous welcome case studies inavifaunal reintroductions as well as native rats (Rattusexulans) and bats and even wetas (a large grasshopper-likeendangered insect) and frogs. Many of these cases haveoccurred in forest patches located on privately owned farms,where local governments (which today have trendy titles suchas Environment Waikato or Environment Bay of Plenty)actively encourage farmers to both conserve and restoreecosystems. Indeed many species of the New Zealand nationalsymbol the kiwi, a flightless, nocturnal bird with a mammal-like niche, have a better chance of survival as reintroductionsin restored forest than in so called conservation forests run byDOC (Department of Conservation). Some more ecologicallytrained conservations have advocated farming kiwis, whichtoo often in N.Z. today are depopulated by introduced feralpredators. This, in essence, boils down to plannedreintroductions in protected forest stands.

Applied to Hong Kong, we could have something like theLong Valley Protected Panda, flying squirrel or bamboo rat(take your pick?) forest. Perhaps, LVPF for short.Regenerating natural vegetation as exists in Hong Kong todayoffers, as Richard correctly argues, potential sites for exoticpests. Local forests, empty of local vertebrates, can present aneasy ride to ecological dominance for exotic species. We maynot be able to repopulate our regenerating local forests withthe cute and cuddly such as the Panda … at least not for now… but we could and should try the noisy and functional.Perhaps gibbons and bamboo rats re-introduced today couldbe pathfinders for pandas tomorrow? Bold, brave, non-bureaucratic schemes such as this may do far more to win thehearts minds and imaginations of Hong Kong people than yetmore hot air on paper in the futile form of a new conservationpolicy. Calls for new policies, better laws and planning havebeen the hallmark of conservations for decades (RevisitMorton 1979 and Hodgkiss 1979 to check this out if needed).Talk of Disneyland abounds in our Newspapers. But justimagine the positive impact on both ecological research andecotourism if we had, say, a Jacky Chan Singing Forest in Tai

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Po Kau. I do not, of course, have Jacky Chan in mind as the reintroduced mammal. He is here already. I have him in mind as the Sponsor and genuine community love and interest in restoration ecology as the outcome. Let’s put a new heart into HK Conservation and fill this overused word with life. Bibliography Bradshaw, A.D. (1987). Restoration : an acid test for ecology. In : Jordan, W.R., Gilpin, M.E. & Aber, J.D. Restoration ecology, a synthetic approach to ecological research. CUP. Bush, M.B. (2000). Ecology of a changing planet (2nd Ed). Prentice Hall. Dodd, C.K. Jr. & Siegel, R.A. (1991). Relocation, repatriation and translocation of amphibians and reptiles : are they conservation strategies that work? Herpetologica 47 : 335-350. Hodgkiss, I.J. (1979). The Pollution of Hong Kong’s Coastal Waters and Seashore. In : Morton, J. (ed) The Future of the Hong Kong Seashore. OUP Hong Kong. Hobbs, R.J. & Huenneke, L.F. (1992). Disturbance, diversity and invasion : implications for conservation in : Samson, F.B. & Knopf, F.L. (eds) (1996) Ecosystem Management : selected readings, New York : Springer. pp.164-80. Morton, B. (1979) (ed) The Future of the Hong Kong Seashore. OUP Hong Kong. Straight Furrow (2002). New Zealand Farming Journal (Fielding, Manawatu, N.Z.). Dr. Gordon S. Maxwell gmaxwell@ouhk.edu.hk

Species introductions . . . wooah there! Dear Feedback, I read with interest and some concern Richard Corlett’s proposals for reintroducing certain vertebrates including several birds into Hong Kong, and boosting the population of certain others. Having made a number of suggestions for reintroducing or introducing certain birds and mammals he closed his article by suggesting that “the target should be the restoration of as

much as possible of the primeval plant and animal diversity of Hong Kong. . . this is going to require more imaginative extrapolation than many conservationists are currently comfortable with. But can anyone suggest a better alternative?” I’ll have a stab at it, at least for the birds. But I’d first like to suggest that the less than comfortable conservationists may have a point. When there is a whole range of species for which historical data exists, why focus on the maybes and the possiblys? Extrapolation is a grown-ups’ word for guessing. I would dare to suggest this is not a good basis for tinkering with our biodiversity, particularly when we are seeing the return and expansion of increasing numbers of fauna and flora through natural recolonisation. This is particularly true when the track record of species (both natural and extralimital) that have failed or succeeded in establishing viable populations throws up so many as yet unanswered questions. Secondly there are a number of recently extinct and declining species for which we have good historical data, and for which work into reintroductions could be safely conducted without running the risk of introducing potentially harmful aliens or initiating programmes that are doomed to failure. Obvious examples of recent losses (albeit non-forest species) are Watercock, Cinnamon Bittern and Pheasant-tailed Jacana, all of which formerly bred in lily and lotus ponds in the Deep Bay area, but have struggled among the scrap yards, container parks and Fairview Parks which replaced them. Provision of suitable habitat, which is likely to come as and when the various private reserves come on line, is likely to lead to these species’ eventual upgrade from scarce migrants to breeding birds. Similarly (and again a little off-track but worthy of consideration), there are historical records of Estuarine Crocodile and Water Monitor from Deep Bay. While reintroducing the croc would deliver a swift, if brutal, resolution to the seemingly insuperable problem of illegal mudskipper collectors, potential prey items may also include reserve workers and even (heaven forbid) bird watchers! – a definite no-no. Water Monitors, on the other hand, have never been known to attack people, and instead would provide a distinct benefit. As one of nature’s garbage disposal experts they will happily devour the carcasses of dead animals, birds and fish, and could help to reduce the occurrence of botulism, which threatens both the Black-faced Spoonbill and other waterbird populations at Mai Po. While the size of these lizards may be cause for concern among urban Hong Kongers, it should be noted that they thrive at Sungeh Buloh Reserve in similarly urban Singapore. Doubtless they would be fined, beaten and

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generally firmly controlled at the least sign of disruptive behaviour – yet they are considered a major attraction of the reserve! Perhaps this is one time when following the example of Singapore could actually benefit Hong Kong. Turning to Richard Corlett’s suggestions for specific forest birds, the issues are rather more complex than his article implied, as an examination of the recent history of recolonisation and establishment by several species of forest birds demonstrates. He suggested Grey–cheeked Fulvetta as Hong Kong’s ‘most obvious “missing vertebrate”’. Yet despite the fact that obviously escaped or deliberately released birds are recorded every year, they are yet to establish a self-supporting breeding population, while other babblers - exotics (Rufous-capped Babbler) and locals (White-bellied Yuhina) - of similar size and habitat preference have thrived or at least maintained viable populations. It seems unlikely that direct competition with these species is a factor as the fulvetta has had similar opportunity to establish itself as these other species, when populations of all of them were significantly lower. It is also noteworthy that Rufous-capped Babbler and Grey-cheeked Fulvetta are often seen together in mixed flocks in lowland forest in Southern China (pers obs). More likely, there is some key biological element missing – possibly a food item or nesting niche - upon which the sustainability of the fulvetta depends. Until that missing element can be identified and, if appropriate, the situation resolved, any attempt at managed introduction is at best optimistic and at worst irresponsible. The same holds true for Red-headed Tit. They were introduced around the same time as the successfully established Yellow-cheeked Tit. Yet they have all but disappeared. Without understanding why earlier populations of Red-headed Tit failed to take hold, introducing more seems somewhat cavalier. And what possible justification exists for artificially boosting the population of Yellow-cheeked Tit without similar research into the limiting factors? A comparison of the forests on Hong Kong Island, where the population failed, and the Central NT, where the population is secure, seems like a good place to start However, let there be no doubt that Hong Kong’s forest birds are returning and proliferating, almost certainly due to the spread, maturity and resurgent diversity of our secondary forests. Leaving aside escapes and deliberate uncontrolled releases, the most obvious and easily explained mechanism of return is expansion by winter migrants that stay to breed. The best example of this is Chestnut Bulbul, a forest-dependent species which has spread rapidly from small resident populations in the central New Territories massif in

the last twenty years, supported by the arrival of varying numbers of winter migrants. At the same time Black Bulbul, which breeds in the same habitat in southern China (pers obs), has not become established. Why one and not the other? Simply put we don’t know, although it is fair to say that greater numbers of Chestnut Bulbul arrive to winter. Intriguingly however, Mountain Bulbul, which is also found in the same Chinese reserves as Black and Chestnut Bulbuls, may have bred in Shing Mun (Captain Wong: pers comm), just months after up to six birds were noted overwintering in Tai Po Kau. It seems highly unlikely that these species all benefit from the same elements in the expansion and maturation of our woodland. Rather, the process of key flora resurging, reaching maturity and flowering, fruiting and eventually dying will, either indirectly (by providing the necessary food or breeding site for a key food species) or directly, continue to reopen long-closed niches for specific forest birds. Examples of this in the last month alone include the discovery of a new species of butterfly – Polyura eudanippus and the first example of the shrub Fissitistigma glaucescens found in flower in Hong Kong (R. Kendrick: pers comm). Could it be that between them they provide the optimum food source for a currently unrecorded “missing vertebrate”? Crested Goshawk and Besra have also expanded greatly, but Black Baza has never got past the stage of the odd breeding pair, while Chinese Goshawk remains a common spring migrant that has never bred. All occur together at Chebaling in northern Guangdong, but the latter has not become established here, despite the increasing availability of mature trees that would provide suitable breeding sites. Other successes include Fork-tailed Sunbird, which is now common and widespread following its discovery at Tai Po Kau in 1959. However, Plain Flowerpecker which has been recorded on almost 20 occasions as a winter visitor since 1988, has not become established, although they are common at Ding Hu Shan. Lesser Shortwing has recently been proven to breed on Tai Mo Shan and Russet Bush Warbler has recently been recorded singing there in late spring and summer. Pygmy Wren-babbler is now heard and seen at a growing number of sites [including close to Daya Bay (J Bryant: pers comm)].

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The other noteworthy increase is in cuckoos. Unlike thewinter-visiting bulbuls, they are spring migrants and summervisitors. Chestnut-winged Cuckoo was formerly considered tobe rather uncommon, but records have greatly increased sincethe 1980s. The Avifauna of Hong Kong suggests that theirincrease is closely tied to the spread of Greater NecklacedLaughingthrush (which it is known to parasitise). The increaseof Hodgson’s Hawk Cuckoo in the last five years may well belinked to the spread of Hainan Blue Flycatcher, which alsobreeds in mature secondary forest.

In response to the suggestion of introducing GreaterNecklaced Laughingthrush, Streak-breasted Scimitar Babblerand Rufous-capped Babbler to Lantau one has to ask how youcan safely establish whether the habitat is really suitable? Itseems likely that their natural arrival on Lantau is simply amatter of time. Hwamei and Masked Laughingthrush alreadyoccur on Lantau. What’s more the latter has been recordedflying across Victoria Harbour, suggesting natural colonisationis at least possible, even if laughing thrushes are hesitant tocross open spaces.

While some species of extralimital babblers (Blue-wingedMinla, Silver-eared Mesia) have done well in Hong Kong,several others have not. These include Red-tailedLaughingthrush, (formerly on Tai Mo Shan), and MoustachedLaughingthrush, Grey-headed Parrotbill and mostsignificantly, Grey-cheeked Fulvetta. While the former threespecies all occur in northern Guangdong they have failed toestablish viable populations and disappeared. The third hasbeen dealt with above. Holding the middle ground are ChineseBabax and Vinous-throated Parotbill, neither of which havesucceeded in expanding beyond the upper slopes of Tai MoShan.

I find the list of proposed phase 3 bird reintroductionssomewhat arbitrary. Chinese Bamboo Partridge failed torecolonise in 1961. Do we know why? Bay, Grey-headed, andRufous Woodpeckers all breed in Guangdong, have visitedHong Kong but never stayed. The absence of dead trees formaking nesting holes may be one reason – typhoons probablycause them to fall much sooner than they would at less wind-affected inland sites. Yet Great Barbet, another large hole-nester manages well in secondary and even feng shuiwoodlands. More questions. Paul Leader (pers. comm.) hassuggested that the impact of typhoons and the heavilymaritime climate of Hong Kong many have a wide range of asyet unknown influences on our forest habitats.

Does it make sense to introduce Brown Dipper when Slaty-backed Forktail is present in such low numbers and numbersof wintering Plumbeous Redstarts have declined? What ismissing from our streams? If Silver Pheasant is to beintroduced, why not Common Pheasant? As discussed above itlooks like Mountain Bulbul is managing fine on its own.

In summary, the presence of a given species in the nearestsimilar habitat is clearly not a sufficiently accurate method fordetermining whether that species has a reasonable chance ofbecoming self-sustaining in Hong Kong. Furthermore, in thelight of an established pattern of natural recolonisation,managed reintroductions become harder to justify, especiallywhen the data on past reintroductions (both deliberate andaccidental) show such variable results.

I hope Richard Corlett enjoyed his opportunity to play Godand fill Hong Kong with new and wonderful animals andbirds. It is worth remembering that the last person to play Godwas God himself - and he had the benefit of omniscience whenlaying out creation. Since Richard’s deity is yet to beconfirmed it is hoped he will make the most of the next bestthing - responsible science – and patience, before making anyreintroductions based on “imaginative extrapolation”.

Bibliography

Carey et al. (2001). The Avifauna of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong BirdWatching Society.

Viney, Phillips & Lam (1995). The Birds of Hong Kong and South China. (6th

edition) Government Publications Office.

Lewthwaite (1995). Forest Birds of Southeast China: Observations during1984-1996. The Hong Kong Bird Report, 1995. Hong Kong Bird WatchingSociety.

Mike KilburnVice ChairmanHong Kong Bird Watching Society

A new cicada record for HongKong —Meimuna silhetana(Cicadidae)

by Y.F. Lo and Fiona, N.Y. LockA cicada picture was taken by an AFCD Country Park Wardenon Tung Ping Chau in fall 2001. The species was later foundto not be one of the familiar cicada species in Hong Kong anda specimen was collected and sent to the Natural HistoryMuseum, London, for identification. The specimen wasexamined by the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

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and the Natural History Museum, London, and proven to beMeimuna silhetana, a new record for Hong Kong.

In September 2002, Country Park staff went to the islandagain for an ecological survey. A few calling male Meimunasilhetana were first found on Celtis sinensis close to ChamKeng Chau and the call is distinct. According to the intensityand presence of the call, Meimuna silhetana shows a scattereddistribution on the island, mainly on Celtis sinensis. Threemale specimens were collected during that field trip.

Information on Meimuna silhetana is scarce. It was not evenincluded in the book, The Cicadidae of China (Chou & Lei,1997). According to the List of Chinese Insects (Hua, 2000),Meimuna silhetana occurs in India and China (Fujian,Guangdong, Sichuan and Yunnan). Chen (1992) reported arecord in Yunnan, China (Lijiang, 2400m, 1974. VII. 23).

Including Meimuna silhetana, 20 species of cicada have beenrecorded in Hong Kong.

Bibliography

Chen, S.C. (1992). Insects of the Hengduan Mountains Region Vol. 1. SciencePress. Beijing.

Chou, I. & Lei, Z.R. (1997). The Cicadidae of China (Homoptera:Cicadoidea). Tianze Eldoneio. Hong Kong.

Hua, L. (2000). List of Chinese Insects Vol. 1. Zhongshan University Press.Guangzhou.

Feral/stray dogs and civetmortality on Kau Sai Chau,2001-2

by Thomas D. DahmerEcosystems Ltd., 2/F Kingsun ComputerBldg., 40 Shek Pai Wan Road, Aberdeen,Hong Kong, ecosys@pacific.net.hk

Introduction

Mortality of Small Indian (Viverricula indica) and MaskedPalm (Paguma larvata) Civets between May 1998 and May2001 on Kau Sai Chau was documented by Dahmer (2001).

Five dead Small Indian Civets and one dead Masked PalmCivet were reported on a ±6 km2 island in Port Shelter ofeastern Hong Kong. The cause of death in each case wasdetermined to be attack by feral/stray dogs (Canis lupusfamiliaris). Between June 2001 and November 2002 sixadditional Small Indian Civet fatalities were recovered fromKau Sai Chau, raising the total to 12 civets over a period offour years and eight months. The cause of death in each of thelatter cases was also determined to be attack by feral/straydogs. Based upon recovered carcasses the rate of civetmortality due to dog attack on Kau Sai Chau has averaged onecivet every 4-5 months since May 1998. Most of the attackedcivets were sub-adult males that appeared to be dispersingfrom litters.

Many feral/stray dogs were removed from Kau Sai Chaubetween 1998 and 2002, but the population was seldom, ifever, reduced to zero for more than a few weeks at a time. Atalmost all times the island was occupied by >2 feral/straydogs.

The purpose of this manuscript is to document the frequencyof dog attacks on Small Indian Civets in a situation that isuniquely suited to monitoring this relationship. It is hoped thatthis report will encourage a more aggressive feral/stray dogremoval and control programme in Hong Kong in the interestsof reducing civet mortality. One additional Small Indian Civetfatality is included in this report to document a death causedby vehicle collision.

Methods

Methods reported in Dahmer (2000) were used in the 18-month follow-on period from June 2001 through November2002. All dead civets were reported by the golf coursegreenskeeping staff. One vehicle-killed Small Indian Civetwas recovered by the author from Clearwater Bay Road on 4July 2001. Nomenclature used in this report follows Wilsonand Reeder (1992).

Results

Over a period of 18 months from June 2001 throughNovember 2002, six dead Small Indian Civets were recoveredfrom northern Kau Sai Chau. These are listed in Table 1together with the fatalities reported in Dahmer (2001). Allfatalities were discovered shortly after sunrise when thegreenskeeping staff spread out over the golf courses to mowgrass and tend to facilities. Only the two March 2002 fatalitieswere inspected in detail prior to disposal of the carcasses. Noflesh or internal organs of the two inspected civets had beeneaten, and none of the body cavities had been opened (exceptby tooth punctures through skin and underlying flesh).

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Table 1. Civet fatalities documented on Kau Sai Chaubetween May 1998 and November 2002.

Material Recovered Month andYear

Recovered

Species

Type No.Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 May

1998Small Indian Civet skeleton 1 May

1998Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 October

1998Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 October

1998Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 May

2001Masked Palm Civet fresh carcass 1 May

2001Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 4 March

2002Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 6 March

2002Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 27 May

2002Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 2 July

2002Small Indian Civet fresh carcass 1 16

October2002

Similar to the fatalities reported in 1998-2001, those during2001-2 were on the golf fairways and practice areas. The civetrecovered on 4 March 2002 had suffered numerous bites to thedorsal lumbar region. The bites penetrated the skin and fleshto the spine and pelvis. The civet recovered on 6 March 2002had suffered one bite on the left thorax that penetrated the ribcage, and one bite on the right groin that penetrated theabdominal cavity. The locations of recovery of both civetcarcasses are areas frequented by feral/stray dogs at night.Weights and measurements of the two civets recovered inMarch 2002 are listed in Table 2 together with those of avehicle-killed Small Indian Civet recovered from ClearwaterBay Road on 4 July 2001. The latter fatality is not discussedfurther in this report.

Table 2. Sex, age class, and morphometrics of one vehicle-killed civet recovered from Clearwater Bay Road and twodog-killed civet carcasses recovered on Kau Sai Chau.

Measurement Small Indian Civetdate of death 4 July 2001 4 March

20026 March2002

cause of death vehiclecollision*

dog attack dogattack

sex male male male

age class sub-adult sub-adult sub-adult

body weight (kg) 2.45 2.2 (est) 2 (est)total length (cm) 94.0 85.0 79.0tail length (cm) 38.2 33.0 31.0body length (cm) 55.8 52.0 48.0hind foot length (cm) 9.9 9.5 9.3ear length (cm) 3.9 3.2 3.7

*This record is included in this report for the purpose ofdocumentation only.

Discussion

For several reasons Kau Sai Chau is a unique situation inwhich to monitor the frequency of dog attacks on civets.Firstly, dogs do not appear to eat the civets they kill or removethe civet carcasses to remote locations where discovery wouldbe unlikely. Dogs do not eat civets possibly because the dogsare often fed by visitors to the island or part-time ownersliving or working on the island. Secondly, dead civets arereadily visible on the short-grass fairways of the golf coursesat Kau Sai Chau. Thirdly, the golf courses are closelyinspected at sunrise every day of the year by thegreenskeeping staff who cover the entire course maintainingturfgrass and tending to facilities. This combination of highlyvisible evidence and intensive monitoring at a consistent levelof effort means that any civet killed on the golf course is likelyto be seen.

Two of the six recovered carcasses were examined and bothbore bite wounds that penetrated thoracic or abdominal bodycavities and caused blood loss. These results are similar to theresults reported earlier of six civet fatalities attributable to dogattacks over 37 months (Dahmer 2001). The 2001-2 mortalityrate due to dog attack averaged one kill every three monthscompared to a rate approximately half that in 1998-2001 (onekill every 6 months). The two time periods combined yield arate of one kill every 4.7 months. This might be a minimumestimate of the rate of civet mortality attributable to dog attackbecause some attacks may take place outside the golf coursewhere they would go undetected. The population biology ofSmall Indian Civets on Kau Sai Chau has not been studied, soit is not possible to calculate the population impacts of theestimated loss to dog attack of 2.6 civets per year. However,because the portion of the island occupied by the golf course isapproximately 2.2 km2, the rate of civet mortality due to dogattack can be estimated as 1.2 deaths/km2/year. If this rate ofmortality is applied to the Small Indian Civet’s estimatedrange throughout Hong Kong (estimated from Suen Kai-yuen2002:264-265 at >200 km2), the annual losses could wellexceed 240 civets.

As in the earlier report other possible agents of civet mortalityat Kau Sai Chau could be shuttle buses, other civets, or EagleOwls (Bubo bubo). Buses are again ruled out because the

9

recovered carcasses were found distant from roads, examinedcarcasses showed no sign or trauma suggestive of vehiclecollision, and there was little overlap between shuttle busoperating schedules (diurnal) and civet activity patterns(nocturnal). Other civets were ruled out because there is noindication that civet density is so high that intra-specificaggression over territories or mates could lead to civets killingcivets. Further, there is no indication in the literature thatintraspecific agression is an agent of civet mortality. EagleOwls were ruled out because of the location and type ofwounds, and because civet carcasses were not fed upon.Finally, attack by dogs was strongly suggested by the patternof bites to the lower back, hind legs, and groin, that ischaracteristic of the canid attack strategy (Brown undated).

Predation on civets in Hong Kong is only one of the manyreasons for eliminating feral/stray dogs from the countryside.Other researchers have suggested that Indian Muntjac(Muntiacus muntjak) may be attacked by feral/stray dogs (PeiJai-Chyi et al. 2002, Suen Kai-yuen 2002). Given that thereare no other extant mammals that prey on Indian Muntjac inHong Kong and that Muntjacs are neither abundant nor is theirlocal population irruptive (as are other deer populations in theabsence of canid and felid predators), the hypothesis thatferal/stray dogs limit population numbers of Muntjacs iscredible. Thus conservation of Indian Muntjac is a secondjustification for eliminating feral/stray dogs. Public sanitationand human health and safety are additional good reasons foreliminating feral/stray dogs from Hong Kong’s wild lands (seeDahmer et al. 2000).

Acknowledgements

Civet carcasses and other wildlife observations were oftenreported by personnel at The Jockey Club Kau Sai ChauPublic Golf Course Ltd. Their cooperation and assistance aregreatly appreciated. Studies reported here were funded by TheJockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course Ltd., whosesupport is gratefully acknowledged. AFCD assisted frequentlyin capture of feral/stray dogs on Kau Sai Chau.

Bibliography

Brown, D.E. (undated). The wolf in the southwest: The making of anendangered species. Univ. Arizona Press, Tuscon, 195p.

Dahmer, T.D. (2001). Feral dogs and civet mortality on Kau Sai Chau, SaiKung, Hong Kong. Porcupine! 24: 16-18.

Dahmer, T., Coman, B. & Robinson, J. (2000). Ecology, behaviour andpersistence of packs of stray/feral dogs with implications and practicalrecommendations for control. Final report. Dept. Agriculture, Fisheries &Conservation, Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, 10March 2000, 30pp +app.

Pei, J.C., Lai, Y.C. & Suen, K.Y. (2002). Present status of larger mammals inHong Kong’s country parks and their conservation concerns. WildlifeConservation Foundation Workshop, October 2002, Hong Kong. WildlifeConservation Foundation Ltd., Chai Wan, Hong Kong.

Sue, K.Y. (2002). Lost Mammals. Guo Liang Hui Xin Shiye Co. Ltd., HongKong.

Wilson, D.E. & Reeder, D.M. (eds.). (1992). Mammal species of the world: ataxonomic and geographic reference. 2nd ed. Smithsonian Institution Press,Washington, D.C. 1206pp.

Sightings of ‘overseas’ colour-ringed Black-faced Spoonbills inHong Kong

by Y.T. YuThe Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor) is a globallyendangered species and its known population is less than 1000individuals (BirdLife International 2000). Studies fordiscovering its migration route were conducted in 1998 and1999 (Ueta et al. 2002). A total of 34 Black-faced Spoonbills(22 from Hong Kong and 12 from Taiwan) were trapped andgiven colour rings.

On 5 and 6 November 2002, I found two colour-ringed Black-faced Spoonbills in Mai Po, which did not carry Hong Kongrings. One spoonbill carried a short blue ring on the left legand a long blue ring with white words ‘T11’ on the right legon 5 November. The bird also carried a transmitter on the backas the antenna was visible. The other bird was seen on 6November and carried a small yellow ring on the left leg andtwo short rings on the right leg, which were red above andgreen below.

From various references, the ‘T11’ bird received the ringsfrom Taiwan in December 1998 (Ueta et al. 1999) and the‘three-ringed’ bird was ringed as a chick in the nest in NorthKorea in July 1995. These are the first recorded sightings of‘overseas’ Black-faced Spoonbills in Hong Kong. Spoonbillsringed in Mai Po have been seen again in Mai Po (Anon.2001), in the Tsengwen Estuary of Taiwan (Yu pers. obs.) andat Liaoning (Lei 2002). The three-ringed spoonbill was firstfound in Japan, in December 1995. I then saw it in XuanThuy, Vietnam in December 1999 (Yu and Swennen pers.obs.). This is therefore the first record of an individual of thisspecies visiting three different wintering sites. In addition, thisbird, which is now 7 years old, provides the first longevityrecord for this species.

Acknowledgements

I thank Mr. Simba Chan, from the Wild Bird Society of Japan,for providing information on the colour-ringed Black-facedSpoonbills.

10

Bibliography

Anon. (2001). Preparation of a Conservation Plan of the Black-facedSpoonbill Platalea minor in Hong Kong. Technical Report 2 – AdditionalWorks. Unpublished report by WWF Hong Kong to the Agriculture, Fisheriesand Conservation Department, Hong Kong SAR Government, 55 pp.

BirdLife International. (2000). Threatened Birds of the World. Lynx Edicionesand BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge, UK. 852 pp.

Lei, F.M. (2002). The Black-faced Spoonbill and its conservation status. In:Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on the status and conservation of HongKong Wild Animals and Plants: 9-20. Wildlife Conservation Foundation,Hong Kong.

Ueta, M., Kurosawa, R. & Allen, D. (eds.). (1999). Conservation andResearch of the Black-faced Spoonbills and their habitats. Proceedings of theinternational workshop in Tokyo, 12-16 June 1997. Wild Bird Society ofJapan, Tokyo.

Ueta, M.J., Melville, D.S., Wang, Y., Ozaki, K., Kanai, Y., Leader, P.J.,Wang, C.C. & Kuo, C.Y. (2002). Discovery of the breeding sites andmigration route of Black-faced Spoonbills Platalea minor. Ibis 144: 340-343.

Pipistrelles use bat roost boxeson Kau Sai Chau

by Thomas D. DahmerEcosystems Ltd., 2/F Kingsun ComputerBldg., 40 Shek Pai Wan Road, Aberdeen,Hong Kong, ecosys@pacific.net.hk

Introduction

Two species of bats have been identified foraging overnorthern Kau Sai Chau, Pipistrellus sp. and Hipposiderosarmiger. The numbers of foraging bats are often large,particularly in spring, summer and autumn when flying insectsare abundant (see Ades 1994). Although foraging bats arenumerous, no bat roosts were discovered on the island prior toDecember 2000. This was in part because there were nobuildings, abandoned or occupied, on the northern part of theisland until 1994, when golf course construction began. Also,over much of the island the tree cover had been either felled orburned decades ago, leaving few mature trees on the island.Finally, there are no caves on the island where bats mightroost. Ades (1994) observed that the availability of suitableroost sites could be a factor limiting bat numbers or speciesrepresentation in Hong Kong, but availability of forage wasprobably not limiting for insectivorous bats. Based upon thatobservation I was interested to learn if increasing theavailability of suitable bat roosts would lead to increasednumbers of roosting bats and ultimately greater numbers offoraging bats. I was interested to increase the numbers ofinsectivorous bats foraging over the northern third of theisland to reduce flying insect populations (particularlymosquitoes) to the extent possible through bat predation.

Provision of roost boxes for bats has been undertaken on acontinental scale by the North American Bat House ResearchProject coordinated by Bat Conservation International (Tuttle& Hensley 1993a). Many bat box designs and strategies forplacement have been evaluated and reported on by BCI staffand associates over the 9+ years of the project. The results ofthat project proved promising so I chose it as a model forapplication at Kau Sai Chau. This manuscript summarises theresults of the first two years of implementation of a bat roostproject on Kau Sai Chau, an island of 6.7 km2 area in PortShelter of northeast Hong Kong Special AdministrativeRegion (HKSAR).

Methods & Materials

Bat boxes were constructed according to blueprints shown inTuttle & Hensley (1993b). Rough-cut lumber for the exteriorwalls and roof of the boxes was sourced from a sawmill inTuen Mun. Internal partitions were made of plywood. In eachbox one internal partition was covered with green plasticscreen material to provide an alternate substrate in the eventthat roosting bats could not cling to the smooth internalplywood surfaces. Ten boxes were installed in early December2000, six on trees in woodlands, one on an isolated tree, andthree on buildings (Table 1). Boxes were monitoredperiodically thereafter using torches to illuminate the interiorof the boxes.

Table 1. Locations of bat roost boxes installed at Kau SaiChau in December 2000

Box No. Location No. Location Description1 1 Hibiscus tiliaceus (Sea

Hibiscus) at clubhouse2 2 exterior wall at

clubhouse3 3 isolated Ficus sp. (fig) at

29 green4 4 Celtis tetrandra sinensis

(Chinese Hackberry) instreamside woodland atmarsh

5 5 C. t. sinensis instreamside woodland atmarsh

6 6 Cinnamomum camphora(Camphor Tree) inwoodland at 2-3

7 7 C. t. sinensis inwoodland at 2-3

8 8 C. camphora inwoodland at 2-3

9 9 northeast wall ofmaintenance shed

10 10 northeast wall ofmaintenance shed

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Results & Discussion

No boxes were occupied by bats during the first 10 monthsafter the boxes were installed. It is not uncommon for roostboxes to remain unoccupied for months or years, even whenforaging bats are abundant in the vicinity of the roost boxes(Tuttle & Hensley 1993a). This can be due to several factorsincluding duration of daily solar input or presence of flightpath obstacles such as tree branches near roost boxes (ibid.).Either of these factors may have affected the boxes that wereinstalled in relatively dense woodlands at Kau Sai Chau. Also,some of the roost boxes at Kau Sai Chau were colonised byants. To avoid this problem one box was relocated from astreamside woodland to the wall of a building in late June2001.

The first record of roosting bats was made on 20 October 2001when box 1 in a small plantation of Sea Hibiscus wasoccupied by two Pipistrelles (Pipistrellus sp.) (Table 2). Theplantation was at the golf course clubhouse in an areafrequented by vehicles, golfers and staff.

Table 2. Occupancy of 10 roost boxes at Kau Sai Chaubetween December 2000 and December 2002.

Nylon Mesh

Date Species Bats BoxNo.

LocationNo. On Off

20-Oct-01

Pipistrellussp. 2 1 1 2

27-Oct-01

Pipistrellussp. 3 1 1 3

29-Nov-01

Pipistrellussp. 6 1 1 6

19-Jan-02

Pipistrellussp. 5 1 1 5

24-Oct-02

Pipistrellussp. 4 1,3 1 4

29-Nov-02

Pipistrellussp. 11

1,3,4,7 1 3 8

On 27 October 2001 two additional boxes were shiftedbecause they had been colonized by ants, one from a CamphorTree in a dense woodland to a plantation of Sea Hibiscus atthe clubhouse, and one from an isolated fig to a Bauhinia atthe clubhouse building. On 29 November 2001 the remainingthree boxes initially installed on trees in woodlands wererelocated to a plantation near the clubhouse because ofcolonization by ants and because only the boxes near theclubhouse had attracted roosting bats. After shifting roostboxes from the woodlands the box locations were as follows:on the walls of a metal-sided maintenance shed (3 boxes); onthe exterior masonry wall of the clubhouse (1 box); on aBauhinia at the clubhouse (1 box); and in a Hibiscusplantation at the clubhouse (5 boxes).

Numbers of roosting bats ranged between 2-6, and box 1 wasthe only box occupied until 24 October 2002 when a secondbox was occupied on a Sea Hibiscus at the clubhouse. Justover one month later two additional boxes were occupied, oneon a Sea Hibiscus at the clubhouse, and the second on aBauhinia also at the clubhouse. On 29 November 2002 fourboxes were occupied by a total of 11 Pipistrelles (Table 2). Allfour occupied boxes were shaded for most of the day, butreceived some mid-day sunlight through the tree canopy.

Roost box locations will be shifted in winter 2002 to increasebat occupancy. Some boxes will be moved from shaded tomore sunny locations to increase absorption of solar radiation,thereby increasing the interior temperature of the box. Such ashift increased bat use of boxes at 31-32o N latitude in NorthAmerica (Anon 2000). Three unoccupied boxes in shadedlocations on exterior walls of buildings at Kau Sai Chau arealso distant from freshwater bodies such as streams and ponds.Those boxes will be shifted to tree or free-standing locations<400 m from water because distance from water has also beenfound to affect bat use of roost boxes (Tuttle & Hensley1993a).

Acknowledgements

Studies reported here were funded by The Jockey Club KauSai Chau Public Golf Course Ltd., whose support is gratefullyacknowledged.

Bibliography

Acker, E. (2000) Backyard Bats. Bats 17(4): 3-6.

Anon. (2000) Bat house landlords. Bats 17(4): 6-9.

Tuttle, M.D. & Hensley, D.L. (1993a) Bat houses: The secrets of success.Bats 11(1): 3-14.

Tuttle, M.D. & Hensley, D.L. (1993b). The bat house builder’s handbook. BatConservation International, Austin, Texas, 34p.

Stinkhorns in Hong Kong

by Justin BahlThis past summer two rare species from the Phallaceaefamily, colloquially known as stinkhorns, were identified.Members of the Phallaceae are very distinct, or rather theystink. The reproductive strategy of these unique and strangefungi is to attract insects, most often flies, to assist in spore

12

dispersal. To accomplish this, they are covered with slime heavily laden with spores and mimic foul smells such as dung or rotting flesh. The species identified, Dictyophora indusiata (Long Net Stinkhorn) and Dictyophora multicolor (Yellow Veiled Lady), are two of the more spectacular members found in Hong Kong. Spores and slime are produced on a head or cap and both produce a long and intricate skirt-like net that extends from the base of the head to the ground. The most obvious difference between these two species is the colour of the net. In the Long Net Stinkhorn, the net is white whereas in the Yellow Veiled Lady, the skirt is bright orange-red, but for both species the odour is di-stink and you will probably smell them before you see them. For pictures and descriptions in Chinese refer to Chang Shu-ting and Mao Xiaolan “Hong Kong Mushrooms” Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995. Justin Bahl identified Dictyophora indusiata; Gavin Smith and Neil Hutchinson identified Dictyophora multicolor.

Three new additions to the vascular plant flora of Hong Kong

by Ng Sai-chit Livistona saribus (Lour.) Merr. ex A. Chev. Bull. Econ. Indo-chine 21: 501. 1919; Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae 13(1): 27. 1991. L. fengkaiensis X.W. Wei & M.Y. Miao J. S. China Agric. Univ. 3(1): 22-24. 1982; Flora of Guangdong 2: 446. 1991. Palm tree 3-4 m tall. Similar to the widely planted Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R. Br. but L. saribus differs in having significantly more robust spines on the petiole, especially towards the base, where the spines are up to 10-16 mm wide and 20-27 mm long (Fig. 1). Livistona saribus also has larger fruit than L. chinensis, about 3 cm long and 2 cm in diameter. No record or specimen of this species from Hong Kong has been seen. The species is recorded from S. Yunnan, W. Guangdong, Hainan, and Vietnam.

The plant was seen near Yung Shu O, Sai Kung (SCNG 2127, 26 January 2000, HKU; SCNG 2529, 27 July 2000, HKU, AFCD (ripe fruit collected on 4 October 2002)). The tree was found growing in young secondary forest about 4-6 m tall at the bottom of a cliff on a steep rocky hillside along a stream at 160 m a.s.l. and is very unlikely to be a planted individual. The base of the tree has fallen and is lying horizontally, yet the plant has managed to grow in an upright position, although it is likely to fall in the very near future. Smilax ocreata A. DC. in A. DC. & C. DC. Monogr. Phan. 1: 191. 1878; Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae 15: 234. 1978; Flora of China 24: 114. 2000. Climber. Similar to the locally common Smilax lanceifolia Roxb. var. opaca A. DC. but differs in having broader round-ovate leaves and round perfoliate stipule which nearly completely encircle the stem. A widely distributed species in S. & SW. China, also recorded from India, Nepal, and Indo-China, but so far no specimen or record from Hong Kong has been seen. Only one plant was seen near abandoned farmland overgrown with Miscanthus sinensis next to a stream at Sheung Fa Shan, Tsuen Wan on 10 February 2002 (SCNG 3441, HKU, AFCD, KFBG). Sticherus laevigatus (Willd.) C. Presl Tent. Pterid. 52. 1836.; Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae 2:122. Herb with horizontal creeping rhizomes and erect dichotomously branching fronds. Fronds 1.5-2 m tall and branch at least five times. Similar in growth form and pinnae shape to the two local Dicranopteris spp. (D. pedata Underw. and D. linearis Nakaike) but differs markedly in having leafy frond-axes, except for the primary and secondary branches of the fronds (Fig. 3 and 4). Pinnae on all the leafy frond-axes are identical in shape and texture to those on the terminal leafy branches. This species is very widely distributed in the tropics and had been recorded from Sri Lanka through Indo-China

and Malaysia to Hainan and the Philippines. It is, however, very rare in mainland China and has only been recently reported from Guduoshan at Zhuhai, Guangdong (Yan et al., 2003). The present record is therefore the first record for Hong

Fig. 1. Base ofpetiole of L.saribus showingthe robust spine.

Fig. 2. The patch of Sticherus laevigatus

13

Fig. 3. Sticherus laevigatus

Kong and the second record for mainland China. A single large colony, up to 3 m width x 10 m length, was seen in the forest margin about 1-3 m tall along a stream (110 m a.s.l.) above the Shatin entrance of the Tate’s Cairn Tunnuel, Shatin on 3 November, 2002 (SCNG 4122, HKU, AFCD, KFBG).

Acknowledgements I am grateful to my hiking friends, Ronald K.Y. Ki, Lawman M.K. Law, Macro C.S. Poon, Zeeman C.M. Ng, Alfred C.K. Wong, for accompanying me in exploring the above unknown sites and making these discoveries. I would also like to thank Ken K.Y. So, Lam Wai Kei, and Ng Yiu Ming of the KFBG for collecting the ripe fruits of the Livistona. Bibliography Yan Y.H, Xing F.W. & Huang X.X. (2003). A survey on the ferns in Gudoushan Reserve, Guangdong, In: Living Forest.

Sometimes common is not common!

by Cecily Law Fissistigma glaucescens (Hance) Merr. belongs to Annonaceae, the custard apple family. It is a woody climber with a characteristic whitish abaxial leave surface separating it from other members of the genus. Although considered a restricted species locally (Xing et al., 2000), Fissistigma glaucescens is distributed in southern China (Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan & Guangxi), Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines (Li, 1991; Yang et al., undated) and is common in Guangdong (Li, 1991). Flowering in Hong Kong has not been documented. Mr. Chan Shu Tong, who has collected plant specimens for over 40 years, claimed that he has never seen this species flowering or fruiting (Chan, pers. comm.). Dr. Ng Sai Chit and Dr. Richard Corlett have also claimed that flowering has not yet been seen (Corlett, pers. comm., Ng,

pers. comm.). Herbarium specimens in Hong Kong Herbarium and HKU Herbarium are without flowers and fruits. It is known that flowering occurs in China from January to September and fruiting almost all year (Li, 1991). A trip to Wu Kau Tang with Roger Kendrick on 11 August resolved the mystery. Three plants of F. glaucescens were found a few meters apart, all in flower. A fourth plant, some 100 m distant, had no flowers. Fruits and flowers were collected on 15th September. Subsequent visits to Tai Po Kau (10 November) and Shek Hang, Tai Mong Tsai Valley, Sai Kung Country Park (24 November) revealed further large specimens of F. glaucescens bearing fruits and a few flowers. Studies have found that it may take 20 or more years for some perennial forest species to produce flowers (Taiz & Zeiger, 1991). Certainly, there are a lot of factors that trigger flowering generally, including vernalisation, water stress, photoperiodism and maturity (Taiz & Zeiger, 1991). Additionally, there has been an increase in suitable forest habitat since the Second World War. These factors, when combined, may explain why there was no previous flowering record of F. glaucescens in Hong Kong. This unintentional discovery may be the first record of flowering for F. glaucescens in Hong Kong. However, it is just the beginning. Follow-up visits will continue to provide more information. Colour pictures will be available on the Porcupine! website. Species information: Family: Annonaceae 番荔枝科 Species: Fissistigma glaucescens (Hance) Merr., 1919 Melodorum glaucescens Hance, 1881 F. obtusifolium Merr. Vernacular name: white-leaved Fissistigma 白葉瓜馥木 Habitat: gully or ravine in forest, feng shui wood (Li, 1991; Xing et al., 2000) Medicinal Uses: roots used as Chinese medicine, leaves used for brewing wine (Li, 1991). Recent studies extracted alkaloids from bark for treating muscular atrophy, hepatomegaly & hepatosplenomegaly (Wu et al., 1987; Wu et al., 1990; Lo et al., 2000).

Bibliography Li, P.T. (1991). Annonaceae. In: Chen, F.W. (chief editor). Flora of Guangdong volume II. Guangdong Science & Technology Press, Guangzhou. pp.33-34.

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Lo, W.L., Chang, F.R. & Wu, Y.C. (2000). Alkaloids from the leaves of Fissistigma glaucescens. Journal of the Chinese Chemical Society 47: 1251-1256. Taiz, L. & Zeiger, E. (1991). Plant Physiology. Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Co., Redwood City, Califonia. p. 513. Wu, Y.C., Lu, S.T., Wu, T.S. & Lee, K.H. (1987). Kuafumine, a novel cytotoxic oxoaporphine alkaloid from Fissistigma glaucescens. Heterocycles 26: 9-12. Wu, Y.C., Kao, S.C., Huang, J.F., Duh, C.Y & Lu, S.T. (1990). Two phenanthrene alkaloids from Fissistigma glaucescens. Phytochemistry 29: 2387-2388. Xing, F.W., Ng, S.C. & Chau, L.K.C. (2000). Gymnosperms and angiosperms of Hong Kong. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 23. 21-135. Yang, K.C., Chen, R.S. & Poon, F.C. (undated). [楊 國 禎、陳 永 修、潘 富 俊]. 由 台 灣 高 士 佛 的 稀 有 植 物 論 恆 春 半 島 的 植 物 區 系 http://www.tnl.org.tw/article/biogeo/kusku/kusku.htm (accessed 18 September 2002)

Fig. 1. Flower of F. glaucescens

Fig. 2. Fruit of F. glaucescens

A new population of Popowia pisocarpa (Annonaceae) in Lam Tsuen

by Ng Sai-Chit A new population of about 30 plants of the rare understorey shrub, Popowia pisocarpa (Blume) Endl., was found in Lam Tsuen in the feng-shui wood of Ma Po Mai Village in a recent field visit by myself, Ken K.Y. So of KFBG, and Angie Ng (KFBG volunteer) on 30 August 2002. This species was previously known to be locally abundant in the feng-shui wood at Tai Om, with a few scattered individuals also in the feng-shui wood at Ng Tung Chai (Corlett et al., 2000). Although the occurrence of P. pisocarpa at this new site is not surprising, given its proximity to Tai Om, the fact that this highly accessible population had not been heard of shows how little we still know of the lowland feng-shui woods of Hong Kong. Bibliography Corlett, R.T., Xing, F.W., Ng, S.C., Chau, K.C.L., & Wong, M.Y.L. (2000). Hong Kong vascular plants: distribution and status. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 23: 1-157.

What eats Ilex chapaensis fruits?

by Anita Tsang, William Trewhella and Emma Long Among all the Ilex species (hollies) found in Hong Kong, Ilex chapaensis produces the largest fruits. In the literature, it is stated that the fruits are black in colour. However, we have only seen green fruits, both on the trees and on the ground. With a size of 14 - 19 mm in diameter, there are only a few Hong Kong bird species that can swallow the whole fruits and the green colour is unlikely to attract birds. It has been suspected that bats eat I. chapaensis fruits, as the fruit skins and pyrenes (seeds) were found on the ground, which is a feature of how fruit bats feed (Corlett, per. comm.). Recently (15 October), a lot of green fruits, fruit skins and pyrenes were found on the ground under an Ilex tree at Mt. Nicholson, Hong Kong Island. Therefore, on 28 October, we visited Mt. Nicholson, hoping to witness the bats that we suspected were eating the fruits. We started at 5:45p.m. (just before dusk) and watched for 1.5 hours to see if any bats visited the tree. Although we saw no bats we were able to identify the real frugivorous culprit - a masked palm civet

15

(Paguma larvata). We heard and saw this animal climbingabout in the canopy of the Ilex tree. It ate 10 - 20 fruits,dropping several on the ground, which we saw were like theprevious fruits seen underneath the tree. What surprises us isthat it removed the fruit skin and ate the fruit tissue inside,leaving fruit skins and pyrenes to fall to the ground. Thisindicates that civets are smart frugivores. In Hong Kong,masked palm civets are considered important dispersers oflarge seeded plants (Goodyer, 1992), and from ourobservations it would appear that they may also help todisperse I. chapaensis.

Bibliography

Goodyer, N. J. (1992). Notes on the Land Mammals of Hong Kong. Memoirsof the Hong Kong Natural History Society 19: 71-78.

Gemmae of the mossOctoblepharum albidum taken asfood by spider mitesby Zhang L.1,2, Paul P.H. But,2 and Ma P.21South China Institute of Botany, TheChinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou510650 and 2Department of Biology, TheChinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin,NT, Hong Kong.

It is widely known that some bryophytes, mainly theirgametophytes and capsules, are eaten by mammals, birds, andinsects (Longton, 1990; Slack, 1988). No reports that we havefound so far indicate that the gemmae of bryophytes are takenas food by invertebrates. We here report such an example fromHong Kong.

During a field survey at Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden onOctober 31, 2002, we collected some fresh material ofOctoblepharum albidum on tree trunks at Orchid Heaven at400 m altitude. The sample was kept in a petri dish (withcover) in our laboratory in room temperature. Abundantgemmae were found on the sample. The mature gemmae arecommonly borne singly along the upper 1/3–1/2 leaf margins.They are fusiform, 110–220 (250) µm long, and consist of 4–8cells. One (occasionally two), hyaline hair-like projection isfrequently developed at the distal ends of the gemmae. Severalweeks later (November 28, 2002), the sample was observedagain. It was surprising to find that almost all gemmae werelost leaving only the basal cells of the gemmae. At the sametime, several spider mites (Tetranychus sp.?) were foundactively crawling on the moss and eating the remaininggemmae. The mite body is dark red to black in color, 1-1.5mm in length, with eight red legs covered by sparse spines.

It is easy to find insects and other invertebrates dwelling onbryophytes, especially in streamside habitats. But this is thefirst time bryophyte gemmae have been documented as foodfor invertebrates in Hong Kong. (For figures see Porcupine!Website)

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks were extended to Kadoorie Farm & BotanicGarden for allowing us to do the field survey, Dr RogerKendrick for suggesting the insect belongs to a kind of mite,and Dr Richard T. Corlett for correcting the text.

Bibliography

Longton, R.E. (1990). The role of bryophytes and lichens in terrestrialecosystems. In: Bates, J.W. and Farmer, A.M. (eds.), Bryophytes and lichensin a changing environment, Clarendon Press: Oxford, pp.32-76.

Slack, N. G. (1988). The ecological importance of lichens and bryophytes. In:Nash, T.H. and Wirth, V. (eds.) Lichens, bryophytes and air pollution, J.Cramer: Berlin. Stuttgart, pp. 23-53.

This column aims to introduce interesting species of HongKong flora and fauna that might be encountered duringfieldwork. Distinctive physical characteristics and someinteresting ecological facts are included for each example. Ifyou wish to contribute to this column, or have any commentsor suggestions, please contact either

Jacqueline Weir (jesweir@hkusua.hku.hk) orSukh Mantel (skmantel@hkusua.hku.hk)

‘Perisesarma bidens’ by David Poon

Perisesarma bidens (Grapsidae: Sesarminae) is one of thecommonest mangrove crabs in Hong Kong. You can easilydistinguish it from other crabs by its orange chelae and thegreenish/olive green carapace. Also, as the name implies, thisspecies has two “teeth” (hence bi-dens) on the lateral sides ofthe carapace.

As dominant mangrove fauna, P. bidens are highly adapted fortheir semi-terrestrial lifestyle. They possess a gill chamber anda modified breathing mechanism typical in many sesarminecrabs [for further details, see Warner’s (1977) classic work].They are burrowers but appear to have a strong preference fornatural refuges such as rock crevices, under boulders andbetween interstices of mangrove root buttresses. They can alsobe found in high intertidal grass patches and near freshwater

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sources, indicating their tolerance to salinity changes and desiccation stress. Observations have shown that they are also good climbers as they move up and cling on mangrove stems tightly during high tides, possibly as a means to avoid prolonged immersion as well as predation from aquatic predators. Spotting of P. bidens on open sand-/mudflats (that are immediately next to the mangroves) is extremely unusual. They seem to have a strong association with mangroves and their activity is, therefore, mostly restricted within the mangrove stand. Field observations suggest that they are aggressive and agonistic encounters are rather common. When kept in captivity, they tend to cannibalize. Perisesarma bidens are swift and alert, and therefore difficult to catch. They can retreat very quickly into narrow refuges and also give a painful bite! As in many other sesarmine crabs, P. bidens play a key role in the mangrove food web as leaf litter processors. Interestingly, they also spend most of their time cropping on surface sediments, a behaviour that has been recognized, yet generally ignored by crab ecologists. The reason(s) for crabs feeding on such an apparently nutritionally inferior food item could be simple or complex, which is a good lesson to me that there is still much to be learnt about mangrove crabs’ feeding ecology. Bibliography Warner, G.F. (1977). The Biology of Crabs. Van Nostrand, New York. 202 pp.

Fig. 1. Perisesarma bidens ‘Hong Kong Newt (Paramesotriton hongkongensis)’ by Dr Leung Sze Lun, Alan Of the 23 species of amphibians in Hong Kong, there is only a single species of salamander, also known as “tailed amphibians”, naturally occurring in Hong Kong and this is the Hong Kong newt, Paramesotriton hongkongensis. The species is endemic to Guangdong, including Hong Kong, and protected by law under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance Cp. 170 Schedule 2. The adult length, from snout to the end of the tail, is about 11 to 14 cm, with four legs similar in size. The body colour ranges from light brown to dark

brown with some patches of orange markings scattered on the ventral side of the body. The patterns of the patches are unique for each individual, just like the fingerprints of humans. The tadpoles have some finger-like gills around their necks which are usually absent in frog and toad tadpoles, and the gills disappear after metamorphosis to adult. The Hong Kong newts undergo seasonal breeding migrations. Each year after the end of the wet season around October, the newts move into the stream pools. After breeding, they will eventually leave the pools around December, but the information on where they go is still poor. From a Hong Kong newt migration study I carried out during 1996 to 1997 “The seasonal migration and diet of Hong Kong Newts, Paramesotriton hongkongensis in KFBG and Tai Tam”, it was found that at the beginning of the breeding season, the newt population in pools was male-biased. Towards the end of the breeding season, the newt population tended to become female-biased. The males that breed quicker than others may have an advantage since their offspring can hatch earlier. As cannibalism is common in this species, being “bigger” can reduce the risk of being eaten.

Fig. 2. ‘Hong Kong Newt’ Paramesotriton hongkongensis

CITES in Santiago

by Yvonne Sadovy The recent CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting, held in Chile, Santiago, ended on some high notes in mid-November after two exhausting weeks of debate, politics and a lot of sitting around. This was the 12th Conference of the Parties (CoP): the term Parties refers to the countries that are

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signatories to the Convention, each of which can senddelegations to the Conference and vote on the variousproposals discussed for species listing on CITES Appendices.There are currently 159 Parties (Kuwait was welcomed for thefirst time at this CoP), including China. I was very fortunate tohave been part of the IUCN (World Conservation Union)delegation as Chair of the Grouper/Wrasse Specialist Group. Iwas invited because of the United States proposal to list thehumphead wrasse, Cheilinus undulatus, on Appendix II.IUCN had a special role as an intergovernmental organization(IGO) at the Conference and is considered to be the primaryscientific authority on species conservation status. The IGOstatus enabled IUCN to comment frequently on the variousproposals up for consideration by the Conference.

So why is CITES important for conservation and what is thesignificance of the different CITES Appendices? CITES is theonly widely recognized, respected and implementedinternational instrument that deals with sustainableinternational trade in wild species. It involves 3 appendices.The best known is Appendix I that prohibits any commercialtrade in species that are already endangered, such as tigers,gorillas or the coelacanth. In practice, the most importantAppendix is II. This includes species that are not endangeredbut may become so if trade is not regulated. An inclusion onAppendix II requires that listed species are properly monitoredand regulated to ensure that any trade (all of which requires alicence or permit) is sustainable and comes from a legalsource. Appendix IIincludes about 95% ofthe 30,000 species listedCITES. Appendix IIIincludes species at therequest of a particularParty that alreadyregulates trade in thespecies and that needsthe cooperation of othercountries to preventunsustainable or illegalexploitation. Moredetails can be found onhttp://www.cites.org/index.html.

One of the biggestsuccesses was theinclusion in AppendixII, for the very firsttime, of fishes ofsignificant commercialimportance. Twospecies of shark, thebasking sharkCetorhinus maximusand the whale shark,

Rhincodon typus and 32 species of seahorses (genusHippocampus) were listed. These listings represent landmarkdecisions because, until now, the Convention has not playedan important role in global fisheries. Why is this? There areseveral reasons but probably three that are most important.The first is that it is only relatively recently that we arecoming to realize, and accept, that commercially exploitedfishes could possibly be threatened with extinction (or rather,that there is no reason to believe that they are any differentfrom other plants and animals in this respect). The secondreason is that, for many commercially important species, thereare regional fishery management authorities or the Food andAgriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations thatcan, or at least should, deal with threats to the species. In suchcases, it is argued, CITES is not needed. However, FAO doesnot manage fish and many areas have no regional authority(think of the South China Sea for example). The third reasonis that there is insufficient information on most fishes to beable to properly assess their conservation status. While it iscertainly true that population status of aquatic marine speciesare difficult to evaluate fishery management is often based onsimilarly inadequate data. Unfortunately, it may be the bestinformation available and the sole to act upon. Clearly sucharguments are no longer excuses to exclude fishes fromCITES Appendices. In case you were wondering, thehumphead wrasse was not listed but fell just 7 votes short ofthe two-thirds majority needed. Given declining numbers inthis species I hope that the next CoP will afford it the attention

it needs, especially given the successes with commercialfishes.

Among the other important outcomes from the CoP werelistings for mahogany, 26 species of Asian turtles, severalparrots, protection for several threatened species inMadagascar, and strict controls for trade in African elephantivory stockpiles. Mahogany Swietenia macrophylla(neotropical populations including logs, veneer sheets,plywood and sawn wood) was listed on Appendix II after 10years of discussion while the turtles were included becauseof declining numbers, habitat loss and illegal trade. Theyellow-headed parrot Amazona oratrix, yellow-naped parrotA. auropalliata., and blue-headed macaw Ara couloni weretransferred from Appendix II to Appendix I becausepopulation numbers have continued to decline due to tradeand habitat loss.

The Santiago meeting is considered to have been one of themost politicized of all CoPs but it also made ground-breakingprogress with listings such as mahogany and fishes. Onething is clear; for species that are heavily traded, vulnerableand not effectively managed, CITES is a critically importantmanagement and conservation tool….for many species, it isthe only one.

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Explorations of twounderground water channels inHong Kong!

by Rita Yam, Sze-man Cheung andBenny ChanThe environment and life inside underground water channelsoften gives people a mysterious impression due to thedarkness, reduced temperature, difficulties of access and thestories of monsters inside. Ecological studies concerningunderground water channels have tended to focus on thediversity of bats which are the major occupants on the ceilingof these channels (Ades, 1994, 1999). A bat surveying teamencountered a water monitor (Varanus spp.: Class Reptilia,Oder Squamata) during their investigation of an undergroundwater pipe (L.K. Lin pers. comm.). Inside the channels,however, there is a lotic environment and there are, so far, noformal records of what species are living inside. One monthago, a piece of news (Oriental Daily 20 November, 2002)reported that a man got lost in an underground water channelin his great journey of fishing in the darkness. This led us towonder whether there are assemblages of aquatic organismsliving in these water draining channels.

Fig. 1. A map of Hong Kong showing the locations of the twounderground water pipes visited.

Out of our own interest, we visited two underground waterchannels to conduct a preliminary survey on the fauna livinginside. On 25 November, we visited an underground waterchannel located in Tseung Kwan O, where the man got lostwhen catching shrimps and crabs. This channel drains streamwater from Tseng Lan Shue and diverts the water out to theharbour in Junk Bay (Fig. 1; total length 5 km). A gradient ofsalinity along the pipe is therefore established. Try to guesswhat we first saw when reaching the pipe entrance…a dead

dog! (which was possibly disposed by the villagers). Thechannel is rectangular in shape and about 3 meters high withsmooth walls. There are lots of turnings and junctions makingpeople get lost easily, thus we needed to attach light sticks onthe wall to mark our tracks. After a 20-minute walk, nothingwas observed except annoying tiny flies. At the moment wedecided to leave, there was something suddenly moving in thewater under the light of our torches. Oh! It was a big mittencrab swimming slowly. We picked it up immediately andconfirmed it to be an Eriocheir japonica (carapace width =9.8cm). Having this as a ‘hint’ that we might encounter moreorganisms when going further, we carried on. Unlike theprevious section of the channel, we found patches of bouldersand sand accumulated on the bottom. We thought that thereshould be more organisms associated with such substrates.Searching the boulder patches intensively, we discovered anumber of unidentified Macrobrachium spp. (Fig. 2) whichwill be sent to the Raffles Museum of the National Universityof Singapore for confirmation of species identity, mitten crabEriocheir and estuarine crab Varuna sp. The crab Varuna isreported to have a distinctive seaward migration in waterchannels for breeding (Lee and Leung, 1999). In general, therewere high abundances of crabs and shrimps in this completelydark environment. The salinity of the water where we got thecrustaceans was 1 o/oo suggesting that the aquatic lives wereexperiencing a gradual increase of salinity from the entranceof the channel, at which the salinity was 0.02 o/oo. Goingfurther into the channel, we also collected two more mangrovecrabs Scylla paramamosain. We continued to walk about 3 kmdown into the channel. Since only several cockroaches andmoths greeted us, we decided to go back.

Two weeks later (6 December 2002), we visited anotherunderground water channel at Nam Chung. The channelcollects waters from hill streams going into Plover CloveReservoir. It is a straight circular pipe about 6 km long.Having walked down into the first 100 meters, we found agroup of bats and a long-legged centipede (Order Chilopoda,Family Scutigeridae) on the wall. The bottom of the channelwas quite smooth, neither boulder patches nor leaf packs werepresent. As we had expected, there were not many aquaticorganisms observed in this area. Passing that “desert”, weencountered a number of Eriocheir japonica and theunidentified Macrobrachium spp. Besides shrimps and crabs,we also found gobies (Oder Perciformes, Family Gobiidae).Strange enough, some dead “headless” fishes were lying onthe stream bottom. Since fish may probably be one of themajor food sources for the bats living there, we guessed thosefishes might have fallen onto the ground when they werebeing eaten by the bats hanging on the top of the waterchannel. According to Ades (1999), fish eating bats, Myotisricketti, are found in Hong Kong and 59% of their gut contentsby volume consist of fish (Cyprinidae) scales. Afterconfirmation of the bat species, we were able to make thepreliminary conclusions about our fish observation. On goingfurther down into the channel, the wall became very rough

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with stalactites growing down from the ceiling, suggesting thatthis section might be constructed from a natural cave. Here,another group of bats was found and the water had becomemuch deeper (0.5m) than that at the beginning area (0.3m).Also, we found two more species of fish (Parazacco spilurusand Osteochilus vittatus, fork length = 21.6 cm). Wecontinued to explore this water channel for about 1.5 hoursmore and then returned.

Fig. 2. Unidentified Macrobrachium spp. collected at theunderground water pipe at Tseng Kwan O.

We believe that most of the animals found in the waterchannels originate from feeder streams, interconnectedreservoirs and, in the case of Tseung Kwan O site, fromcoastal shore near the seaward channel mouth. Compared tothe feeder stream, at least for some taxa such as fish, theabundance was much reduced in the channel. For example, aschool of Parazacco spilurus was observed in a pool directlyoutside the entrance of Nam Chung channel, but only a singleindividual of this species was recorded inside. The food chainsin the channel also appeared to be incomplete. Although nosystematic observation data were obtained, the channel servedas a bat roosting rather than feeding site. We suspected thatthe bats have to disperse to nearby sites for feeding. Inaddition, water marks up to about two metres were seen inboth channels and this suggested that water may rise to thatlevel during the wet season. This means most aquatic lifemight be washed away during peak flow and animals fromoutside have to “colonize” the channels after the peak wetseason. As a result, we believe underground water channelscannot be considered as a self-contained ecosystem, but ratheras a special semi-natural microhabitat interconnected to otherwater bodies, depending on the imports of both faunalcolonizers and nutrients.

One thing worth pointing out is the nature of these waterchannels in conducting water between different aquatichabitats. Gene flow of aquatic species such asMacrobranchium spp. among freshwater habitats may bepromoted by the linkage of these pipes. Channels connecting

hill streams to the sea may provide pathways for massmigration of anadromous species such as Eriocheir japonicaand Macrobranchium nipponensis. However the spread ofintroduced species, especially large mobile species such aspredatory exotic fish to nearby natural water bodies maythreaten the survival of native resident species.

For faunal inventory purposes, future studies should coverwater channels with different engineering designs as we feelthat preference for “natural cave like” channels by differenttaxa of animals may exist. As both water channels wereinvestigated during the daytime, further explorations should beextended to include night visits to recover nocturnal species.

Whether the gene flow of aquatic species among fragmentedfreshwater habitats and mass spawning migration ofanadromous species through these underground waterchannels really exist is a potential research area for furtherstudies.

Bibliography

Ades, G.W.J. (1994). A comparative ecological study of insectivores bats(Hipposideridae, Vespertilionidae and Rhinolophidae) in Hong Kong, withspecial reference to dietary seasonality. Ph.D. Thesis. The University of HongKong.

Ades, G.W.J. (1999). The species composition, distribution and populationsize of Hong Kong Bats. Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society.22: 183-209.

Lee, S.Y. & Leung, V. (1999). The Brachyran fauna of the Mai Po Marshesnature reserve and Deep Bay, Hong Kong. In: S.Y. Lee (ed). The MangroveEcosystem of Deep Bay and the Mau Po Marshes. Proceedings of theinternational workshop on the mangrove ecosystem of Deep Bay and Mai PoMarshes, Hong Kong. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 57 – 82.

Ting Kok: a conservation issue

by David PoonWhen there is sudden rustling of grasses and the weather iscalm, you may guess that there must be something moving inthe grass patch but …What is it? A bird? A dog? An I I(Illegal Immigrant)? Or a porcupine?

My answer is: “It’s a lizard!”

In the morning of 18 September, while I was passing throughTing Kok village, there were sudden vigorous movementsfrom a grass patch (near a pink house) away to my left. Ithought it was a stray dog ready for an attack (!) but it turnedout to be a surprise - its dark body, the typical lizardappearance, and the characteristic reptilian movement as itrushed away, made me certain that it was a Varanus lizard!

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At first I believed that it was Varanus salvator – the watermonitor believed to be extinct from Hong Kong’s wild places(Dudgeon and Corlett, 1994). Personal communication withRichard Corlett, Gary Ades, and Michael Lau later led me tosuspect, however, that it was more likely to be an escapee ofthe illegally imported Bengal monitors, Varanus bengalensis(Apple Daily, 29.6.02; Ming Pao, 29.6.02).

Another “surprise” came to me two months later: on 13October, I discovered a massive cutting of Kandelia candel atthe Ting Kok mangrove. A large number of mangrove treeshad been cut down and only the basal parts (roots) remained.

So what are the lessons here? First, although Bengal monitorshave being designated as endangered species in their nativerange since 1976 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), if theescapees survive and breed successfully at Ting Kok, this willbe an addition to Hong Kong’s exotic species list. Second,given the apparent strong association between mangrove treediversity and crab species richness, in particular the grapsidcrabs (see Lee 1998 for review), the massive tree cutting notonly resulted in a reduction of floral cover, but may also leadto a decline in crab (notably Perisesarma bidens) abundancethrough the loss of refuges and food sources. Also, it isuncertain whether the tree destroyers will return and convertthe entire habitat into an ecological desert, like the Yi Omangrove reported by Olive Lee (2001). Ting Kok mangrovehas been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interestsince 1985 (WWFHK) so, unless officially approved, anydestruction or removal of fauna and flora from Ting Kok isprohibited. All in all, both the tree cutting and the importation(and the subsequent accidental release) of an endangeredspecies (Varanus bengalensis) are equally illegal andecologically destructive!

What happened to Ting Kok is just one of the many reportedissues that demonstrate how Hong Kong’s naturalenvironment is being frequently damaged by local citizens.Perhaps a majority of our locals do not realize that the effectsof anthropogenic disturbance to our ecosystem are often, likecancers, only apparent when it is too late to recover! Finally,to reiterate, in order to protect Hong Kong’s naturalenvironment, we need to equip ourselves with a sense ofawareness as well as appreciation of nature – this is going tobe an obligate matter, not a facultative one. It’s ourresponsibility to preserve the dwindling, yet still rich, localbiodiversity for future generations, who have the right to beable appreciate it.

Acknowledgements

Thanks Dr. Richard Corlett for forwarding my Bengal monitorsighting to Drs. Gary Ades and Michael Lau. Also thanks toGary Ades for the newspaper cuttings.

Bibliography

Apple Daily 29.6.2002.

Dudgeon, D. & Corlett, R.T. (1994). Hills and Streams: An Ecology of HongKong. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong. 234 pp.

Lee, O.H.K.(2001). Feedback. Porcupine! 24: 4−5.

Lee, S.Y. (1998). Ecological role of grapsid crabs in mangrove ecosystems: areview. Marine and Freshwater Research 49: 335−343.

Ming Pao 29.6.2002

Internet Resources

World Wide Find for Nature Hong Kong Fact Sheet No. 16:Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Hong Kong.http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/references/index_factsheet2.html

U.S. Fishes and Wildlife Service.http://ecos.fws.gov/servlet/SpeciesProfile?spcode=C017#status

The Virtual School ofBiodiversity: an update

by Kevin J. Caley and Will TrewhellaVirtual School of Biodiversity, Departmentof Ecology & Biodiversity, The Universityof Hong Kong

Back in December 1998, Gray Williams introduced Porcupinereaders (see: Porcupine! 18) to a new collaborative teachinginitiative, called the “Virtual School of Biodiversity” (VSB)(Fig. 1) that was going on in the Department of Ecology &Biodiversity (DEB). That was four years ago, so it is abouttime you had an update on some of the things the VSB hasbeen up to since then.

Fig. 1. The VSB logo

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Firstly though, a quick reminder of what the VSB is all about.The VSB has it roots in a university-level teachingcollaboration in the United Kingdom, known as the“Biodiversity Consortium” that was developed by the Biologydepartment in the University of Nottingham. During the1990s, this project carried out research and development in thefield of ‘technology-mediated, student-centred teaching’ inbiology. So what exactly is ‘technology-mediated, student-centred’ teaching? It is basically a fancy way of describingusing computers to deliver teaching resources, though there ismuch more to it than that. Information Technology of varioustypes (CD-Roms, multimedia, email and the World WideWeb) can be used to create and deliver teaching resources, tohelp foster an ‘on-line’ teaching and learning community, andto share these resources amongst a wide audience. Thestudent-centred side of this project focuses on providingopportunities for students to investigate a topic at their ownpace and depth, rather than by simple ‘rote learning’; this isregarded as a better way to get students to understand whatthey are being taught.

The opportunity arose in 1998 to turn this project into aninternational collaboration, and the VSB was set up betweenthe University of Nottingham, The University of Hong Kong(HKU) and the Natural History Museum, London. The mainobjective of the VSB is developing and delivering good,technology-mediated teaching resources in the field ofbiodiversity. The VSB was a timely project, since its launchcoincided with HKU’s student laptop initiative, and a growingawareness of the role the World Wide Web (WWW) has toplay in education.

With support from the VSB’s core partners, and funding froma range of sources (DEB, HKU, the University GrantsCouncil, the HKU Foundation, and Universitas 21, amongstothers) the VSB has tried to develop a model for cross-institutional, collaborative teaching. Here we describe some ofthese initiatives in detail, and outline where the VSB may gofrom here.

Biodiversity and Biosystematics teaching resources

Whole organism biology teaching is experiencing increasingpressure in universities these days, as new lecturers areappointed in ‘trendy’ research areas, such as molecularbiology. One of the ways the VSB is trying to address thisissue is to commission and develop quality teaching resourceson biodiversity and biosystematics. The key to getting qualityis to approach leading experts in these fields around the world,to get their biological input into the teaching resources. TheVSB has developed a system to tap into the biologicalknowledge of these experts, and develop this into a series oftechnology-mediated tutorials, without expecting too much ITand pedagogical know-how from them. Over the years, theVSB has built up a portfolio of biodiversity tutorials, which isever-increasing

(http://ecology.hku.hk/vsbhome/Virtschl7_2.htm), and theseare being used in DEB’s teaching programme, particularly inthe VSB’s flagship module on “Biodiversity”.

“Biodiversity” – a flagship module for the VSB

Despite its name, prior to the academic year 2000 – 2001 thedepartment did not offer a module in “Biodiversity”.Fortunately, this was where the VSB could help. Since 1996,Nottingham had been using some of its technology-mediatedbiodiversity tutorials to teach a whole module on this subject.So we decided to run this module in DEB as a compulsorycomponent of the Environmental Life Science Programme.Just to make things more complicated, we thought it would bea good idea to run the biodiversity module simultaneously inboth Nottingham and Hong Kong, and have formalinteractions between the students taking the module in eachinstitution.

The “Biodiversity” module deals with concepts, principles andcontemporary issues concerning the earth’s biodiversity at alllevels (genetic, species and ecological), as well as social andeconomic aspects of biodiversity. It also has the central aim ofenhancing students’ experience and competence in learningindependently (i.e. it is ‘student-centred’), and developingtheir ability to employ a range of research, IT andcommunications skills. The bulk of the module’s content isdelivered via interactive tutorials available on CD-Rom, ratherthan conventional lectures, but it is not a totally facelessmodule. There is a series of seminars on particularbiodiversity topics, and group work is encouraged throughgroup projects and use of on-line discussion fora.

This module has been taught by DEB for two years now toaround 70 students a year, and is forming part of an increasingarray of student-centred teaching initiatives in the departmentas we try to get students thinking more for themselves andaway from conventional, passive learning. The exam marksand evaluations show that this module is a success, and isadding to the department’s reputation in the area of wholeorganism biology teaching.

Learning Support Centres for supporting student teachingin DEB

On-line student support is an important component of thebiodiversity module. With the WWW and e-mail, it is possibleto make a move towards ‘paperless’ management for teachingmodules such as “Biodiversity”. The WWW is also packedwith a vast number of useful resources for teaching biology,but this sheer volume of material can be daunting. The VSBhas managed to address the issues of module management andprovision of quality-assured WWW resources by developing aWWW-based system of teaching support, called “LearningSupport Centres” (LSCs), which it has successfully piloted inthe department (see http://147.8.128.254/vsb/lsc/). LSCs (Fig.

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2) provide both a module-specific support framework forteaching and a generic framework, e.g via study skills, newsservices, careers advise, etc. LSCs are designed to bededicated resource and communication centres offering directaccess to a variety of quality-reviewed WWW-based resourcesrelated to the curriculum and to the needs of independentlearners. All modules taught by the department have their ownLSCs, and these are updated each year by the moduleconvenor, in collaboration with VSB staff.

Fig. 2. The Learning Support Centre “homepage”

DEB / Schools links mediated via the VSB

Although the main focus of the VSB has been at university-level teaching, in the last year the VSB has concentrated ondeveloping links with local secondary schools in Hong Kong.

The starting place for these links is an advisory group ofteachers and DEB lecturers, set up to find out from theteachers what they would find useful to support theirbiodiversity and ecology teaching. Out of this came the idea ofworkshops run by DEB staff to demonstrate how teachers canbest organize fieldwork for their students. Four sets ofworkshops (“Exploring Rocky Shores”, “ExploringMangroves”, “Exploring Streams” and “Exploring SandyShores”) have been held so far, supported by WWW-basedresources (http://ecology.hku.hk/jupas) and laminated field IDsheets of the most common species in these habitats.

A series of bilingual field guides to the fauna and flora ofHong Kong is also being produced in collaboration withAFCD. Four titles - “Rocky Shores”, “Hillstreams”,

“Hillsides” and “Sandy Shores” should be available very soon.Each guide will provide information on around 100 of themost abundant or most obvious species in their respectivehabitats, give ecological details on individual habitats and howand where to explore them, and on general Hong Kong naturalhistory and ecology. These guides will fill a gap in HongKong’s biodiversity education and are being developed incollaboration with local schools, focusing in part on some ofthe current A-level syllabus needs. They should also improvethe general appreciation and understanding of the Hong Kongcountryside and biodiversity issues among the next generationof Hong Kong residents, and will have a significantcommunity-wide impact.

VSB and the future

This has been just a taster of some of the things the VSB hasbeen involved in over the last few years, as it tries to explorehow technology can be used to help deliver ‘quality assured’biodiversity teaching resources to a wider audience.

The VSB aims to be an example of good practice for the useand development of IT in learning. If the number ofdemonstrations of the project to visiting academics that theVSB has been asked to give in both Nottingham and HongKong is anything to go by, then it is certainly succeeding inthis aim. The VSB has helped the teaching review processes inboth biology departments in Nottingham and Hong Kong,being commended in both DEB’s Teaching and LearningQuality Process Review process in the summer of 2002, and inNottingham’s School of Life and Environmental Science’sTeaching Quality Audit in 2000. The VSB has also enteredHKU’s ACITE Award for IT in Education in 2001 and 2002,and won 1st prize for “Best Web-based or IT enhancedlearning initiative, including project activities, materials andtools” in both years.

One of the ways forward is to spread the VSB’s model ofcollaborative teaching to other universities, both in HongKong and internationally, and to other educational audiences.So far, this has proved remarkably hard to achieve at theuniversity level, despite initial enthusiasm from several otherinstitutions around the world interested in the biodiversitymodule and teaching resources; with the growing interest inteaching collaborations world-wide, we hope to break throughthis hurdle and expand the VSB network. Teachingpartnerships – both internationally (through bodies likeUniversitas 21) and nationally (see this year’s UniversityGrants Committee’s Sutherland report on teaching in HongKong, and HKU’s Faculty of Science plans) – are politicallyflavour of the month. On a technological side, our colleaguesin Nottingham are developing the ‘next generation’ in WWW-based learning environments (see:http://whurle.sourceforge.net/) that the VSB and others canuse to deliver teaching resources. Growing links withsecondary schools in Hong Kong are also showing how the

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interface between secondary and tertiary education can bebridged.

Biodiversity is facing a global challenge as habitats are lostand species go extinct. Promoting education, public awarenessand training in biodiversity can help address these challenges,providing suitable educational resources exist. Developing andsharing these resources is ultimately what the VSB is allabout!

Aeromonas and Vibrio spp.detected in Mai Po NatureReserve and Inner Deep Bay

by Ji-Dong Gu and Yanling WangMai Po and Inner Deep Bay Nature Reserve involve an areacovering approximately 1,500 hectares, consisting of intertidalmudflats, mangroves, gei wai’s, fishponds and drainagechannels. Each winter, between 49,000 to 68,000 water birdsregularly stay at the site. Undoubtedly, this is the largestremaining wetland in Hong Kong and plays a very importantrole in supporting a wide range of wildlife including migratorybirds and local important species like the blackfaced spoonbill.Since part of the intertidal wetland is on Shenzhen’s side ofthe Mainland China and the Shenzhen River also discharges alarge quantity of wastewater into the Deep Bay NatureReserve, protection of the ecological conditions of the area isan issue of regional importance for protection of wildlife andbiodiversity. Microbial quality of the water and sediment in anarea may also have a significant impact on wildlife. Recentfindings suggest that fauna and migratory birds could beinfected by microorganisms, particularly Aeromonas andVibrio species occurring in polluted environments (Biscardi etal., 2002; Merrell et al., 2002).

An investigation was initiated to examine the current status ofpotentially harmful microorganisms in water and sedimentsamples of Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay. Both water andsediment were sampled, transported back to our laboratoryimmediately in a cooler, kept at 4°C and cultured forenvironmental Aeromonas and Vibrio spp. on selective culturemedia in February 2002. Among the water samples taken fromfour different locations of the Inner Deep Bay area, all werefound positive for the presence of Aeromonas and Vibrio spp.Further detailed investigation indicated that between 25.9–100% of the samples collected tested positive for bothmicroorganisms. Interestingly, water samples from two geiwai’s also showed positive results for the presence ofAeromonas and Vibrio spp. and 7.7–24.3% of the watersamples were positive. In addition, sediment samples werealso found positive for the two microorganisms and as high as42.4-100% of the individual samples tested positive. It seems

that the level of contamination is more serious in the DeepBay area.

Isolation of these bacteria through enrichment culture onselective microbiological media could to be conducted inwarmer months when the environmental temperatures arehigher for positive recovery of these bacteria. Our detection ofthese bacteria as early as February strongly suggests that theMai Po and Inner Deep Bay areas are seriously contaminated;detection of the opportunistic pathogen Aeromonas spp. andpotentially pathogenic Vibrio spp. was unexpectedly highbecause the temperature at the sampling time in February isthe lowest of the year and is not optimum for the growth ofmicroorganisms. The positive results of water and sedimentsamples indicate that a large population of thesemicroorganisms is residing in Mai Po Nature Reserve andDeep Bay, and represents a potential risk to migratory andlocal birds. As food source for water birds, both epifauna andinfauna should be monitored for the extent of microbiologicalcontamination.

Bibliography

Biscardi, D., Castaldo, A., Gualillo, O. & de Fusco, R. (2002) The occurrenceof cytotoxic Aeromonas hydrophila strains in Italian mineral and thermalwaters. The Science of the Total Environment 292: 255-263.

Merrell, D.S., Butler, S.M., Qadri, F., N. Dolganov, A., Alam, A., Cohen,M.B., Calderwood, S.B., Schoolnik, G.K. & Camilli, A. (2002) Host-inducedepidemic spread of the cholera bacterium. Nature. 417: 642-645.

Trawling experience andtreasures in Hong Kong waters

by Benny Chan and Kenny LeungDuring the summer of 2002, we received HKD1.3 millionfrom CityU Professional Services Limited to carry out aconsultancy study entitled “Provision of Services forUndertaking Laboratory and Field Programmes of PotentialBiological Indicators for Monitoring Marine Pollution”. Thekey purpose of this study was to validate the potentialbiological indicators or biomarkers for monitoring marinepollution :

• Ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) in fish liver;• General histopathology and conditions of fish;• Lysosomal stability of the mussel Perna viridis;• Gonadosomatic index of the limpet Cellana grata

and Patelloidea pygmea; and• Spatial distribution and abundance of barnacles

(Balanus amphitrite and Tetraclita squamosa andTetraclita japonica) and mussel (P. viridis) in HongKong.

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We also quantified the levels of contaminants (PAHs andPCBs) in the tissues of fish and mussels. Owing to such alarge-scale project, we were in collaboration with an overseasexpert on EROD assay (Dr. Monique Gagnon, CurtinUniversity of Technology, Australia) and other localcompanies. Additionally, there were two research assistants(RAs), Dr Alan Leung and Wolfy Lai, and eight student RAsinvolved in this project. One of the most exciting things wasthat we used shrimp-trawlers to sample fish (the flat headPlatycephalus indicus, the sole Cynoglossus spp., the ponyfish Leiognathus brevirostris and the rabbit fish Siganusoramin) from six locations (Deep Bay, Urmstron Road, Toloharbor, Ninepin, Lamma and Tathong Channel) once in Juneand once in August 2002. At each location, we performed two30 minutes tows. In this article, we would like to share someof our trawling experiences with Porcupine’s readers.

Fig. 1. Locations of the study: (1) Deep Bay, (2) UrmstronRoad, (3) Tolo Harbour, (4) Ninepin, (5) Lamma and (6)Tathong Channel.

We spent three consecutive days carrying out the trawlingsurvey at each of the six zones in June 2002 (Fig. 1). The firstday of trawling began in Tolo Harbour. To all students, it wasthe first time that they had been onboard a shrimp-trawler.Most of us were unfamiliar with equipment and other thingsinside the trawler and the unpleasant smell of petrol. After wehad arranged the equipment and ice-boxes in a systematicmanner, the trawler arrived at the area outside Wu Kai Shawhere the trawling commenced. After 30 minutes tow, wewere very excited about the ‘catches’ from the trawl nets.After sorting the catch, we obtained the three target fishspecies except the Cynoglossus spp. The pony fish L.brevirostris was found to be the most abundant species at thelocation. The catch also consisted of a number of crab species,predominantly Portunus pelagicus, P. sanguinolentus, andCharybdis feriatus (Fig. 2). All these three crab species arecommercially important. Furthermore, a large number of smallcrab species including Charybdis truncata and Dorippe

granulata were also found (Fig. 2). The third and fourth legsof Dorippe are short and hooked; making the legs capable ofplacing a flat grey anemone (Carcinactis ichikawai) on thecarapace for escape from predation (see illustration in Fig. 2;Morton and Morton, 1983). There were a large number ofmantis shrimps, mainly Harpiosquilla harpax and Dictosquillafoveolata, found in the catch. Some of them were served asour lunch. Of course, they are very delicious! We alsocollected a considerable number of the bivalve Bassinacalophylla. Bassina features with extensive lamellae on theshell surface to escape from predation by gastropod predators(Ansel and Morton, 1985). After collecting the target fishspecies, people started to get busy with dissecting the liverfrom fish and freezing it in liquid nitrogen. This was indeedone of the most difficult tasks because of the combined effectsof both wave action and unpleasant petrol smell. The first daytrip was finished in a half day.

Fig. 2. Common crab assemblages collected from the trawlingsurvey. A – Portunus gracilimanus, B – Portunussanguinolentus, C – Portunus pelagicus, D – Charybdisferiatus, E – Dorippe granulata, F – Charybdis lucifera, G –Calappa philargius, H – the sea pen Pteroeides sparmanniand the commensal crab Porcellana picta. Photos taken byMiss Chan Hoi Lam.

On Day two, we went to Deep Bay and Urmstron Road,respectively. This time, we were on a new trawler (larger andcleaner) without any unpleasant smell of petrol. Unexpectedly,there was a very cute and friendly dog, cheering up all of usduring the boating time. The catch in Deep Bay and UrmstronRoad primarily consisted of P. indicus and L. brevirostris withonly a small amount of Cynoglossus spp. The crabassemblages were mainly composed of Charybdis feriatus, C.anisodon, C. lucifera, Portunus gracilimanus, Dorippegranulata, Menippe spp. and the mangrove crab Scyllaparamamosain (Fig. 2). Additionally, there was a species ofsea pen Pteroeides sparmanni in which we observed a numberof beautiful small porcelain crabs Porcellana picta indicating

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a commensal association between these two species (Fig. 2;Morton and Morton, 1983). In these western Hong Kongwaters, bivalves were made up of a high abundance ofAnadara spp., which has a thick shell with brown hairs.Furthermore, there were at least six species of mantis shrimpsfound in these areas including Clorida decorata, Dictyosquillafoveolata, Harpiosquilla harpax, Miyakea nepa, Oratosquillaoratoria, Oratosquillina. interrupta and some of these speciescould not be observed in eastern Hong Kong Waters. Besideslive organisms, the catch also consisted of a considerablenumber of large petrol drums and metal furniture frames,which were likely abandoned by fishermen. This wastematerial shows that the seabed in these areas has been heavilydisturbed by human activities, apart from trawling. The mud inthese areas was also black in colour with an unpleasant smellindicating high organic loads. This is likely attributable topollution in the area.

The third day of the trawling trip was the hardest day, as weneeded to survey three zones in one day. We started our trip at7:30 a.m., travelling from Tuen Mun to the Ninepin. Thewaves around the Ninepin were so rough that the vessel roseand fell vigorously. Having sorted the target fish species, weneeded to carry out the dissection of fish under extremelywavy conditions. During the dissection, many of us wereseasick, feeling dizzy, with stomach upsets, vomiting and evenlosing the ability to carry on working. The remaining teammembers needed to work harder in this tough situation. ThankGod! We finally finished the mission impossible – dissectingall the fish. Despite the seasickness, we saw a number ofspecial and beautiful marine fauna. The ‘by catch’ in theNinepin consisted of the box crab Calappa philargius,unidentified species of decorated crabs and some unidentifiedspecies of soft corals. After completion of the sampling atNinepins, we headed towards Tathong Channel (i.e. Junk Bay)where the sea was far more ‘calm’. Like Urmston Road, therewas a lot of rubbish on the seabed in Junk Bay. As a result, aconsiderable number of nets were broken during the trawlingthere. It was amazing that we found used toilet bowls, vehicletires and furniture etc. inside the trawl nets. Because of therough seabed, this is an unfavourable fishing location forfishermen. Because of this “artificial reef”, it was notsurprising that we found three groupers Epinephelus spp. (15-20 cm flock length). They were released back to the seaimmediately.

Finally, we headed to South Lamma Island and arrived therein the late afternoon. At this site, we were able to obtain allfour target fish species and we also got several large sized rays(Elasmobranchs). The rays were given to our fish expert DrYvonne Sadovy for her ongoing research on this group of fishspecies in Hong Kong. Crabs collected in Lamma channelmainly consisted of Charybdis feriatus and Dorippe granulataas well as some Eucrate spp.

The trawling survey left all of us with some unforgettablememories. It was a wonderful experience for the students whocould see, touch and learn about the diversity of benthicorganisms in Hong Kong, as well as see the operation ofshrimp-trawlers. All these experiences will be useful for theirthird year course on ‘Fisheries and Mariculture’. In addition,the trawling survey has initiated some research interest forboth of us. Although mantis shrimps are very common inHong Kong waters, their ecology and population dynamics arelargely unknown. If there is any funding available, Kennywould like to further study the species composition, spatialdistribution, ecology and population dynamics of mantisshrimps in Hong Kong. During the trawling survey, Bennyobserved that the gills of the subtidal crabs, especiallyPortunus pelagicus, were colonized by a large number ofstalked barnacles Octolasmis spp. which are considered to beparasites of crabs (woo.. Barnacles again!). Unlike otherparasitic barnacles (e.g. Sacculina as reported Porcupine! 23,p.6) having a reduced larval stage and very patchydistribution, Octolasmis spp. shows a very wide distribution inHong Kong and their larval stage is similar to that of otherconventional barnacles. Therefore, Benny is currently workingwith Priscilla Leung to investigate the genetic differentiationof Octolasmis and Sacculina in Hong Kong to see whether ornot the difference in larval dispersal will lead to differentextents of gene flow in these parasitic barnacles.

Although Hong Kong waters are enriched with a huge varietyof wonderful living organisms, such a great biodiversity isthreatened by human activities such as sewage discharge, overfishing and illegal waste disposal. We therefore should worktogether in order to safeguard all these precious treasures. Inthe future, we will organise a few more trawling studies andyou are welcome to join us to find out more about thetreasures of Hong Kong Waters.

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to undergraduates andpostgraduates in DEB including K. H. Chu, Valerie Ho, O. S.Hung, George Kwok, H. L. Chan, Danny Lau, Kiwi Lee,Justine Tsui, and David Y.N. Poon for their assistance in thisstudy.

Bibliography

Ansel, A. D. & Morton, B. (1985). Aspects of Naticid predation in HongKong with special references to the defensive adaptations of Bassinacalophylla (Bivalvia). In Morton, B. & Dudgeon, D. (eds). Proceedings of thesecond international workshop in the malacofauna of Hong Kong. Hong KongUniversity Press, Hong Kong. pp. 635-660.

Morton, B. & Morton, J. (1983). Seashore ecology of Hong Kong. Hong KongUniversity Press.

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“In The News”

by Jacqueline Weir, Gloria Chau andSukh MantelReuters News Service stories can be accessed atwww.planetark.org. China and International News can beaccessed on the web version of Porcupine! Please note theomission of Jacqueline Weir’s name as co-author of ‘In theNews’ in Porcupine! 26.

Wind power plants may appear in Hong Kong in the future.The Hong Kong Observatory has identified six sites wherewind speed would be suitable for generating electricity. Theseinclude Cheung Chau and Tai Mo Shan. A report by theElectrical and Mechanical Services Department on thepotential of renewable energy in Hong Kong will be madepublic within this year. (Oriental Daily 9.9.02)

The landfill area in Junk Bay is proposed as a site for a newpark for leisure and educational purposes. The main themewould be ‘love animals, study plants’. Kwun Tong districtoffice has agreed in principal to the proposal. (Oriental Daily9.9.02)

Environmentalists from Green Power are calling for tightercontrols on development after a controversial golf course builton breeding grounds of an endemic fish has never been used.The golf course in Sham Chung near Sai Kung Country Parkwas developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties. Over 200endemic black paradise fish, Macropodus hongkongensis, hadto be rescued from the site. (SCMP 15.9.02; see Porcupine!19: 1, 28-30 for articles on Sham Chung being destroyed)

CLP Power and Hong Kong Electric are being urged by theSecretary for Environment, Transport and Works to joinMainland China in its emerging ‘emissions trading’ market.Emissions trading treats pollution as a commodity to bebought and sold by companies. Strict limits are imposed onpollutant levels, and emission reductions are given monetaryvalue. Credits are given to a company that achievesreductions, and these can be traded with companies that do notmeet the targets. This may help to reduce overall pollution, buthas been criticised for allowing rich companies to pollute.Barriers to Hong Kong’s participation may include differencesfrom the mainland markets and in environmental standards, aswell as different approaches to enforcement. (SCMP 30.9.02)

The Singapore based environmental group Sea ShepherdConservation Society is to follow up its previous shock tacticsagainst consumption of shark fins. Post cards were recentlydistributed in various countries including Hong Kong,depicting a wedding party spattered in blood from butcheredsharks. The new post cards, as well as posters in public areas,

will focus on the high mercury levels found recently in peoplewho had consumed shark fin. (Reuters News Service11.10.02)

China proposed regulating trade in endangered animalsprotected under CITES. Out of the 54 proposals for banning orregulating trade at the CITES meeting in Santiago, Chile (seep.16), eleven were proposed by China for regulating trade inturtles. This is encouraging news since China is the largestimporter and consumer of turtles. In 2001, Hong Kongimported approximately 8.69 million kg of live turtles (mostlyfrom Malaysia and Indonesia), which is approximately 18times greater than in 1992. A spokesperson for AFCD refusedto comment on the HK government’s position on theproposals. According to Dr. Michael Lau of KFBG, depletionof mainland stocks of turtles was leading to turtle suppliesincreasingly coming from Southeast Asia and this was leadingto lowered number of turtles in these areas. Another speciesdiscussed at the CITES meeting was the humphead wrassewhose population has decreased by approximately 20% in thepast decade (proposal from the United States). Unfortunately,Hong Kong, China, the major importer of this species, did notsupport the proposal. (SCMP 3.11.02; see CITES CoP12story under ‘International News’)

Illegal ivory sales and smuggling have increased dramatically,with Hong Kong implicated as playing a major role. A 6.2tonne haul of illegal African ivory was seized in Singapore inJune, with links to a Hong Kong-registered company. A recentreport by the Environmental Investigation Agency blames aHong Kong based network of ivory dealers for numerousshipments since the 1990s. Demand for ivory in China is high,with Guangzhou a centre of illicit trade there. Followingrecent approval by CITES for a one-off sale of southernAfrican ivory stock-piles, China is to carry out a nation-wideaudit of its existing ivory stocks to help crack down on illegaltrade. Increasing demand in the region has been blamed partlyon a one-off legal sale to Japan in 1997. (Reuters NewsService 7.10.02; SCMP 10.11.02, 17.11.02)

An endangered Green Turtle has been satellite trackedmigrating from its breeding ground in Sham Wan, LammaIsland, to feeding grounds off Hainan. Sham Wan is the onlyremaining turtle breeding ground in Hong Kong, and isprotected by law. AFCD also helped mainland counterpartstrack three green turtles last year, from Gangkou NationalNature Reserve, Guangdong, to Hainan Island and Okinawa,Japan. (SCMP 10.11.02)

An attempt to smuggle around 600 live cobras through HongKong to Mainland China ended in the death of one smuggler.The endangered snakes were being transported from SouthEast Asia to the mainland for consumption. During a marinepolice chase cobras were thrown at police. The police vesseland the smuggler’s boat collided and one smuggler died frominternal bleeding. (Reuters News Service 18.11.02)

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Ma On Shan district office is thinking of making deer thesymbol for their district. At least ten deer can be observedthere at night, close to the iron quarry. They are also lookinginto the possibility of captive breeding the deer. (OrientalDaily 29.11.02)

A study by the AFCD has documented rich animal and plantdiversity in Tai Tam Country Park, including barking deer,wild boar and Chinese leopard cat. Twenty percent of the 540man-made ‘bird holes’ there are now occupied by birds, andAFCD is planning larger ones for owls. (Apple Daily 1.12.02)

South African abalone is being massively poached by gangscontrolled by Hong Kong triads. Once plentiful along thecoast near Cape Town, abalone is now on the brink ofextinction. Coastal areas where the shellfish is found havebeen taken over by poachers who intimidate locals andtourists. The illicit money this has brought is fuelling drugstrade and crime there. Triads branched into abalone smugglingdue to lower competition, having previously smuggledpoached shark fins. (SCMP 1.12.02)

PUBLICATIONREVIEWHong Kong Biodiversity: better thanPorcupine!?

by Richard T. CorlettFor more than 20 years, conservation and Country Parks inHong Kong were the responsibility of a governmentdepartment, the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, whichconsidered these activities of too little significance to featurein its name. Agriculture and fisheries currently employ,respectively, 0.16% and 0.35% of Hong Kong’s population, sothe addition of Conservation to the name in year 2000, inrecognition of the department’s major function, wasinevitable. Now the conservation tail wags the AFCD dog, andnot only in the name. Over the last few years, there has beenan explosion of new activity in both the Country and MarineParks Branch, which manages the protected area system, andthe Conservation Branch, which is responsible forconservation elsewhere in Hong Kong. There have beenvariety of conservation initiatives, a lively new website, and alot of new publications, some of which have been reviewed inprevious issues of Porcupine!

It is therefore with great pleasure that we welcome a newaddition to the AFCD’s growing publication list – and apotential rival to Porcupine! - Hong Kong Biodiversity. Hong

Kong Biodiversity is targeted principally at AFCD staffinvolved in the department’s ongoing Biodiversity Survey, butit deserves a far wider circulation among Hong Kong’sconservation community. So far, there is only a single, 16-page publication, consisting of the first three issues combinedtogether. With its glossy paper and colour pictures, it looks, Imust admit, more attractive than our environmentally friendlyPorcupine!, but it has basically the same mix of contents: longarticles (auto-trigger cameras, the history of Country Parks, anegretry survey) and short items reporting new species records(two butterflies, Acraea issoria and Chilasa agestor restricta,and a bird, the Red-throated Diver), interesting sightings(Greater Painted Snipe breeding in an artificially createdwetland), or survey results (fish in Country Parks). Rathersurprisingly, most of the text is in English, with onlysummaries in Chinese. The contents reveal a knowledge of,and enthusiasm for, Hong Kong’s native biodiversity thatwould have been unthinkable a few years ago, when suchtrivial things as wild species were left to amateurs andacademics, while the department got on with its real job ofcollecting litter, fighting fires and planting exotic trees.

How can you get hold of a copy? At present, there appear tobe no plans for Hong Kong Biodiversity to be circulatedwidely outside the AFCD, so I don’t think I should reveal theEditor’s name or email address in case he is swamped withrequests from Porcupine’s vast (?) readership. If you reallyneed a copy, ask a friend in AFCD to smuggle one out. I hopethat they will at least put future issues on their website. HongKong is big enough for both of us (and we are still the onlylocal conservation publication with an exclamation mark inthe name).

AFCD (2002). Hong Kong Biodiversity: Agriculture, Fisheries andConservation Department Newsletter, Issues No. 1-3. Hong Kong.

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Any sightings of civets, mongooses, ferret badgers, leopardcats, barking deer, pangolins and porcupines – live ordead – should be reported. Rare birds, reptiles,amphibians and fish, or unusual behaviour by commonspecies, are also of interest, as are rare or interestinginvertebrates and plants. If you think it is interesting, ourreaders probably will! Please give dates, times andlocalities as accurately as possible

MMAAMMMMAALLSS Maria Salas and Geoff Brown found a dead Masked PalmCivet (Paguma larvata) (40 cm in length, not includingtail) on a small road by Tai Tam Reservoir. It wasprobably an adult and was quite recently dead. Diane Bennet saw a Porcupine (Hystrix brachyura) and afew days later a Masked Palm Civet (Paguma larvata),both on Barker Road at The Peak in late October/earlyNovember. Both sightings were between 6.30 p.m. and9.30 p.m. A freshly road-killed Barking Deer (Indian Muntjac,Muntiacus muntjak) was found by Kadoorie Farm staff onLam Kam Road on the morning of 2 October. The bodywas of a one year old male and was still warm. Thestomach was dissected and contents identified by Ng SaiChit and Wicky Lee. They included: a fern head, probablyCibotium barometz, and fruits of Ficus variegata var.chlorocarpa. (Reported by Captain Wong)

On the 13 November at around 11.30 p.m. Paul McKenzieand Paveena Atipatha watched a Masked Palm Civet(Paguma larvata) on McDonnell Road for around 20minutes. The animal, which was more than 1.2 m, wasunusual as none of the characteristic white markings wereobserved on its face. It was very agile and moved effortlesslyfrom the branches of one tree to another. Captain Wong found about eight Civet scats and onePorcupine quill along the footpath on Wang Leng, PloverCove on 17 November. On 11 October around mid-morning, Annika Walters noticeda Barking Deer (Muntiacus sp.) in open grassland on TaiMo Shan. Yu Yat Tung, Mike Leven, Ying Hak King and Jacqui Weirsaw an adult Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) and one juvenilewalking on a road in Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden.They were seen at mid morning on 13 October. A Leopard Cat (Felis bengalensis) was watched for a fewminutes at around mid-day on 1 October, walking along abund in the reedbeds of Mai Po. It was seen by Paul Leader,Ying Hak King, Jacqui Weir, Cheung Ho Fai and ShirleyLam. The animal appeared to be hunting, as it pounced onsomething at the side of the bund. It was also seendefecating. On noticing human presence it took cover insome vegetation and was no longer seen. Apple Daily (1 November) reported the presence of a SmallIndian Civet (Viverricula indica) in a catchment near YuenYuen Taoist Temple, Tsuen Wan on the previous day. Apple Daily (21 November) reported an injured BarkingDeer (Muntiacus sp.) at Hang On Tsuen, Ma On Shan, andvillage crops eaten by Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in Lai ChiKok. Anita Tsang, William Trewhella and Emma Long saw a 60cm long (not including tail) Masked Palm Civet (Pagumalarvata) on Mt. Nicholson at 7:10 pm on 28 October. It wasfeeding on the fruits of a holly tree (see article for details).

BBIIRRDDSS On 26 October, Karin Chan discovered an immature BlackStork (Ciconia nigra) in pond number 11 at Mai Po. It wasseen at around 7 a.m. so may have stayed there over night. Itwas not there in the afternoon of the same day. Karin Chan saw a pair of White-bellied Sea Eagles(Haliaeetus leucogaster) in Sham Chung, on the 29 October.One was carrying some nesting material.

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Karin Chan also saw three Common Starlings (Sturnusvulgaris) at a Mai Po fish pond on the afternoon of 29October. Two Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) were seen by KwokHon Kai in Lut Chau on 7 and 8 October. He also saw twoBlack-naped Terns (Sterna sumatrana), one of which was ajuvenile, in Mai Po gei wai number 24 on 8 October.

AAMMPPHHIIBBIIAANNSS//RREEPPTTIILLEESS Robert Davison saw Common Rat Snakes (Ptyas mucosus)engaging in mating behaviour on the City University campusearlier this year and then on 8 November one dead juvenile(approx 0.6 m long) on campus. Its head was crushed and tailbroken about 3 cm from the end, possibly by a foot or straydog/cat biting. He wondered if it might be the juvenile of thesnakes sighted earlier. The following reptiles were sighted by Mike Kilburn:

80 cm long adult of a Many-banded Krait (Bungarusmulticinctus multicinctus) hunting in Ng Tung Chai streamon 7 September. A 30 cm long roadkilled Coral Snake (Calliophismacclellandi) on Ng Tung Chai Access Road on 23 August. A 15 cm long (possibly juvenile) Chinese Mountain Snake(Sibynophis chinensis chinensis) on a steep path from Tai MoShan to Man Duk Yuen temple , Ng Tung Chai on 24August.

PPLLAANNTTSS Flowers of Hong Kong Balsam (Impatiens hongkongensis)Grey-Wilson (Balsaminaceae), Wallich’s Burmannia(Burmannia wallichii) Hook.f. (Burmanniaceae) and anorchid, identified by Dr. Gloria Siu as Malaxis latifolia Sm.(Orchidaceae), were seen in Tai Po Kau (10 November) byCecily Law and Roger Kendrick.

Impatiens hongkongensis

Thousands of Codium juveniles formed slicks offPower Station beach and within the harbour at YungShue Wan, Lamma Island in the weeks leading up tothe 7 December noted Andy Cornish. Juveniles ofCodium macroalgae, which are thin walled,translucent green balls, up to about 1.5 cm indiameter, are carried within the water column andeventually settle onto hard substrate and develop intothe adult phase which is a more familiar branchedseaweed. Such slicks have not previously beenobserved in these areas in recent years.

Books, monographs etc. AFCD (2002). Hong Kong Biodiversity: Agriculture, Fisheriesand Conservation Department Newsletter, Issues No. 1-3.Hong Kong. [The new AFCD newsletter!] Ka, M. (2002). Natural Wonders of Sai Kung. Friends of theCountry Parks and Cosmos Books, Hong Kong. Lee, S.Y. (2002). Forest in the Water. Friends of the CountryParks and Cosmos Books, Hong Kong. Suen, W.K.Y. (2002). Lost Mammals. KLH, Hong Kong. Tsim, S.T. & Lock, F.N.Y. (2002). Knowing Ramsar Wetland.AFCD, Hong Kong. JJoouurrnnaall aarrttiicclleess,, bbooookk cchhaapptteerrss aanndd ootthheerr ppuubblliisshheedd ppaappeerrss Barros, N.B., Jefferson, T.A., & Parsons, E.C.M. (2002). Foodhabits of finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides) inHong Kong waters. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology: 115-123. Beasley, I. & Jefferson, T.A. (2002). Surface and dive times offinless porpoises in Hong Kong's coastal waters. RafflesBulletin of Zoology: 125-129. Blackmore, G. & Morton, B. (2002). The influence of diet oncomparative trace metal cadmium, copper and zincaccumulation in Thais clavigera (Gastropoda: Muricidae)preying on intertidal barnacles or mussels. Marine PollutionBulletin 44: 870-876. Cai, S.Q., Su, J.L., Gan, Z.J., & Liu, Q.Y. (2002). Thenumerical study of the South China Sea upper circulationcharacteristics and its dynamic mechanism, in winter.Continental Shelf Research 22: 2247-2264.

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Chan, B.K.K., Hodgkiss, I.J., & Chan, R.Y.P. (2002). Adistributed learning model for Freshwater Ecology practicalclasses. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 18: 309-319.

Chan, L.L., Lo, S.C.L., & Hodgkiss, I.J. (2002). Proteomicstudy of a model causative agent of harmful red tide,Prorocentrum triestrinum, 1: Optimization of samplepreparation methodologies for analyzing with two-dimensional electrophoresis. Proteomics 2: 1169-1186.

Chan, T., Lam, S., Ng, F., & Young, M. (2002). Freshwaterfish in Country Parks. Hong Kong Biodiversity 2: 6-7.

Chan, T.T.C. & Sadovy, Y. (2002). Reproductive biology, ageand growth in the chocolate hind, Cephalopholis boenak(Bloch, 1790), in Hong Kong. Marine and FreshwaterResearch 53: 791-803.

Cheung, S.G., Tai, K.K., Leung, C.K., & Siu, Y.M. (2002).Effects of heavy metals on the survival and feeding behaviourof the sandy shore scavenging gastropod Nassarius festivus(Powys). Marine Pollution Bulletin 45: 107-113.

Corlett, R.T. (2002). Fruit-frugivore interactions in tropicalforests: diversity, structure and function. In: New Frontiers inBiodiversity Science (eds T. Nagata & K. Kitayama), pp. 13-14. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto,Japan.

Dudgeon, D. (2002). The most endangered ecosystems in theworld? Conservation of riverine biodiversity in Asia.Verhandlungen internationale Vereinigung fur theoretischeund angewandte Limnologie 28: 59-68.

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Porcupine! No. 27December 2002ISSN 1025-6946

Chief Editors: Yvonne Sadovy Richard Corlett

Assistant Editors: Rachel Wong Laura Wong

Wild Corner: Sukhmani Mantel Jacqueline Weir

Published by the Department of Ecology &Biodiversity, The University of Hong Kong.

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