Bugs and Creatures in Hong Kong - 18 images

8 May

Bugs and Creatures you might encounter in Hong Kong

Me Jamie, English and 52 years living in Hong Kong and I know the know the place - I personally completed 2,324 Private Tours (6,000+ guests) from 2011 - 2020 and was considered one of the finest Private Tour Guides in Asia.

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Bugs and Creatures in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Culture 101

Being English and from Yorkshire and of a certain age I have what is called a very well developed sense of humour and never shy away from getting up close and personal with bugs and creatures, it comes in very useful particularly when it comes to bonding with kids on a private experience.

One does have to be careful though, I have spent quite a bit of time in snake shops and I actually had a cobra bite my camera lens and leave behind it’s venom when I got too close to it, it was in the hands of snake handler whose sense of humour was even stranger than mine and yes, I was holding the camera at the time.

Living in Hong Kong for 52 years I have come across many strange creatures, some of which you just would not think existed in a city like Hong Kong but we have 430 sq miles of mainly green and rocky land and like everywhere we have a thriving “pet” culture where people collect the strangest things, mainly I might add for bragging rights.

I do not write dry, educational blog posts, you know what I mean, the sort written by academics, I let the picture do the talking.

Amazingly many of the images where taken at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong which is my second home, sometimes I just keep my mouth shut if I know someone has a bug phobia (which is very common) what you can’t see won’t hurt you and in any event I would take one for the team if it came to a stand off.

The images are in a totally random order

**The Bamboo Snake**
Yes, it is a viper
They are not very big (up to 90cm for females) and with that colour, very hard to spot in the wild day or night and can be **quite lethal**, Hong Kong has 14 venomous snake species and this is one of the nastiest, unfortunately for the snake they taste good and are quite the delicacy in our snake restaurants.
Best seen when they are in a glass cabinet or metal cage and even then they make you shudder.

**Wild Cows**
Yep, we have plenty of wild cows and one of largest populations of them is resident at the Big Buddha on Lantau Island in Hong Kong, quite friendly and they do not seem to mind if you get close, this one is my favourite, this is Cow No. 1 !!
I have always speculated that the cows are quite safe at this location as the Buddhists on site are vegetarians.

**A crab out of water at Victoria Peak**
This is one of my Monty Python moments, imagine my surprise when I spotted this creature scuttling along Lugard Road at Victoria Peak which is roughly 425m above sea level.
I speculate that a house maid at one of the swanky residences had been shopping at the market and somehow the crab had dropped out of the shopping bag. I rather suspect it’s bid for freedom was short lived.

**This is not a Norwegian Blue Parrot**
Shades of Monty Python again and this Parrot is very much alive and kicking
Basically, cats, dogs and birds (and not to mention snakes) are not allowed on public transport for obvious reasons and it is quite common to see them in bags with air holes and the Public Transport Operators seem to turn a blind eye and clearly this parrot likes to go for walks.

**The Caterpillar with the Skull Face**
I have never really bothered to actively look up and check what species this is but it is a favourite of mine because of that face it has and my over active horror film induced imagination can only imagine this being 6ft long with 3 inch fangs. Kids love this one.
I might add that no one seems to know it’s Latin designation

**Wild Boars**
200kg and 2m long and bloody great big tusks, that tells you everything you need to know
..and typically the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department calls them Wild Pigs which does not quite have the same threatening ring to it as Wild Boar.
Sometimes Hong Kong people can be just plain dumb, every year dozens of people are injured by wild boars (including Police Officers sent to catch them in shopping malls) because they ignore all the safety rules in order to give them bread, buns and perhaps a couple of servings of Chicken Nuggets.
These are wild creatures and have quite a mean disposition and simply no longer have a fear of humans despite what our Government Department AFCD says (that they are shy and secretive) I have encountered them at Victoria Peak a few times and no matter how big or small, I would freeze and let them run past.
The Government has been culling them recently to get the numbers down and to stop attacks on humans and on August 1st 2024 a new law will come to pass that means if you are caught feeding them you can be fined HK$100,000 or US$12,820 and spend a year in jail.

**The Blue Tailed Skink Lizard**
Very common although a little skittish if you get too close - again, imagine if it was 5 ft long!

**The Golden Koi at the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island.**
On Golden Pond
I swear that those scales were metallic gold and for luck I touched it as it swam by, it did not seem to mind at all
I am not an expert on fish or show fish or Koi Carp but this might have a GinRin classification for Koi because of those gold reflective scales.

**The Giant Centipede**
8 inches long and very, very mean.
Very common at Victoria Peak and you need to stay away from them as they can give you a very nasty nip - if you have ever watched the rather excellent **King Kong** movie by Peter Jackson in 2005 you will remember the horrid scenes of these yucky slimy creatures 5ft long attacking the ships crew in the jungle.
They are I should point out, easy to spot.

**The Snapper Turtle**
The stuff of nightmares and with one of the strongest bite forces in the animal kingdom, they do not seem to do much except every now and then remove someone’s finger for lunch. This fella was resident at the Goldfish Market in Mong Kok Hong Kong for many, many years.

**The Beauty Snake**
Non Venomous thank goodness, I always take the view that any snake is potentially lethal because it is hard to tell which is lethal and which is not unless you look at hundreds of images and I can tell you, they look quite different in the wild.

**The Rhesus Macaque Monkey**
I simply have no idea why anyone could possibly like these horrid creatures.
Hong Kong has a resident population of monkeys and not just any old monkey, it is these nasty buggers.
“The total population of wild monkeys in Hong Kong is about 2,000, they were distributed in 30 social troops. The existing species are the Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta), the Long-tailed Macaque (M. fascicularis) and their hybrids. They are mainly found in Kam Shan, Lion Rock, and Shing Mun Country Parks.”
A quote from the relevant Government Department, the only good news is that they have never been spotted on Hong Kong Island (Tigers have but not monkeys, but that is an entirely different story)
Personally I hate the darn things, they have no fear of humans and are very aggressive and have a huge mouthful of giant teeth and bear in mind they do not floss or brush their teeth with Colgate toothpaste so the bacterial issue is a very real threat to your well being.
I was in a car when I took this, best place for me and the monkey.

**The Darwin Caterpillar**
Yes, I made that up, I have no idea what species it is but it is quite magnificent and I call it the Darwin caterpillar because it has evolved by growing those prickly hairs to keep away birds and bigger bugs that fancy a snack.

**Dogs**
We love dogs in Hong Kong, nothing much to add to that.

**The Blue Winged Stealth Killer**
Yes, I made that up as well
I see them all the time at Victoria Peak and I often wondered if they are poisonous, generally bright colours mean danger in the bug kingdom.
This I captured on film so to speak, this was a very large spider and it was dead within a second after being attacked by the stealth killer, probably will not hurt a human too much but I am not eager to find out.

**Argiope Aetheroides**
What a lovely spider with such an unpronounceable name, very common in Hong Kong though not very big.

**The Goldfish Blue Parrot Moment**
Shades of Monty Python again
We have a very large Goldfish Market in Mong Kok, Kowloon where you can waste hours marvelling at fish doing not very much.
I am not sure about this fish, not exactly a natural pose for a large goldfish and I speculated that it was no longer with us or perhaps it just had a weird sense of humour.

**The Golden Orb spider Hong Kong**
Oh yes… I have a thing about spiders and have spent a lot of time in our Hong Kong summers tracking them down to take images of them, I am totally fascinated by the Golden Orb spider.
This was a particularly large one about 80% of the size of my hand and as my camera does not have a zoom lens I had to get very close, I have no problem with them, they can give you a bit of a nip but I always think it is the size of the bloody things that gives you the nightmares.
Kids love them, parents hate them and at Victoria Peak, they are everywhere but very, very hard to spot and what you can’t see………..

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