Chapter 118 Mammals of Hong Kong

Hong Kong Island itself is isolated from the mainland of Kowloon, and because it has been inhabited for a long time, and its area is small, there are very few large mammals that can accommodate on the island.Except for a tiger that occasionally comes from the opposite sea—Kowloon, the largest wild mammal on the island is the barking deer, which is slightly bigger than a domestic dog.This thing is a South China deer, the locals call them yellow muntjacs, and they are more abundant in Kowloon and the New Territories than on the islands.In addition, wild boars have also been found on the island.There have been records of hunting tigers on the island, but there is no doubt that they must have swam over from Kowloon, which is the same reason why tigers were found on Lantau Island.This kind of large feline animal appears in the New Territories every winter, but they do not live in the local area, but come from the farther inland China, the mountains of Jiangxi, Fujian.They are the so-called southern Chinese tigers, and although they are different from the northern Siberian tigers, they are also slightly different from the southern Indian tigers.Hong Kong Island has never seen a leopard, but someone hunted one in the New Territories, skinned it and left a photo in December 1931.

Other carnivores that have been found on Hong Kong Island include the fox of the southern Chinese species, the spotted wild cat of the southern Chinese species, which is between the civet cat and the leopard, and various civet cats, which belong to the southern Chinese species Otters, quasi, and crab-eating ferrets. Strictly speaking, there are not many mammals found on Hong Kong Island, and even fewer are officially documented.But because the animals seen on the island are often closely related to the animals on the mainland, we may as well assume that all mammals that can be seen in the mainland of the New Territories must also have a chance to be seen on Hong Kong Island. .This includes many species of bats, as well as many species of rodents, especially squirrels and house mice.And because the New Territories is geographically part of Guangdong Province, all mammals that can be seen in southern China, such as porcupines and southern Chinese rabbits, can also be seen here.The strange-looking scaly anteater, known locally as the pangolin, has been found in the New Territories and on Hong Kong Island.

Although there are monkey forests in the New Territories, they are not wild.Zoologists who visited Hong Kong in the early days all said that they had seen wild monkeys on the island, saying that they belonged to Indian rhesus monkeys, but they have long since disappeared on the island. , there may still be such wild monkeys.