On
July 28th 2016 (as I have done before) I posted a question on the
Hong History Forum Gwulo.com to Andrew Suddaby.” Do you remember any stories of
very rare or unexpected fauna whilst you were on Cheung
Chau?”
The
day after he replied ,under the heading, Cheung Chau
Fauna
Hello
Richard,
Sorry Richard,
my visits to Cheung Chau were always just for a day and I neither saw nor heard
any fauna on the island. I guess that I was usually too busy taking
phortographs of places, things and, when allowed, of people. In 1958 most
adults out of the city centre did not want to be photographed and I
tried to respect that. Children were quite different and would clamour to have
their pictures taken. I always tried to reward them with a few coins, sweets or
fruit such as bananas. If you did that nowadays they'd arrest you, which just
shows how sad a world we are living in now.
Anyway,
intrigued by your comment, I looked Cheung Chau fauna up on Google. The only
snakes that I have ever seen in the whole of Hong
Kong were:
1957/8 a cobra
skeleton draped on a barbed wire fence at the top of the Little Sai Wan camp
road junction with the Cape
Collinson Road
1957/8 a very
dead but beautifully coloured python that some small children found brushing
against their legs in the shallows at Shek O beach. The life guard rushed down
grabbed it and, I guess, took it home for his tea. No doubt thos toddlers
acquired an instant phoebia about snakes.
1957/8 a black
and white krait that slithered across the path on the way down from the
Temple
oif
c2004 I saw a
lovely little baby python on the path down at the Point at Little Sai Wan / Siu
Sai Wan. I took a photo of it, showed the snake to two ladies and one of
them promptly ground it into the concrete as they departed gleefully up the
path. Is this what slaying the dragon is all
about?
The same year, I
think, I was scrambling up a narrow and rough path between our sunbathing rocks
there and the Cape
Collinson
On many
occasions when I have been trying to find old pill boxes, etc., I have brushed
through bamboo thickets and other thick vegetation often filming as I went and I
now wonder how close I might inadvertently have come to becoming well-acquainted
with a bamboo snake - but fortunately, as I was always alone in some quite
remote places, it never happened.
Sorry, I cannot
offer any real help.
best wishes.
Andrew
Also on July
29th Tung contributed: “Hello Richard,
I almost forgot
this one......
Boys running
around the outback on CC island of my time must understand the fun of hunting
and keeping some harmless Spider. This tiny spider never construct any web at
all. It scouts on everywhere, indoor & outdoor, on trees, shrubs, or house
furniture like your desk. They are like tiny lonewolfs, maybe in search of flea
or other tiny bugs.
People consider
they are the good and harmless, kids think they are so friendly and pet-able
too!
Kids of age 5 to
8 years old would like to bring their spider pets to school and do all kinds of
creative shows or fight. They keep them each in a tiny envelop made out of a
leaf. The spider is about 0.5 to 1.0 cm long, and color in all black, white and
black, biege or brown. It has no visible hair but very clean to touch. It never
bite people at all.
And they are
free to go after few days fun!!
Tung.
July
29th. Old Timer.
Thanks Tung and
Andrew for recalling our younger days. This photo reminds me of the creek below
the old Clear Water Bay
Road Good Hope School
At about the age
of the tall boy in this photo, I sometimes hiked to Kowloon Reservoir to look
for fighting spiders. They, a loner, made their home a foot or two above
ground by pulling together two leaves with their silk, and this made their
location easy to spot. Some are "Old Poke" (lo-dok - loose translation) because
they use their two front arms to spear at their opponent. When two of them
meet, they fight as if they want to hug each other. Another kind is the "Red
Kid" named for their body colour. To catch them, I wrapped around the folded
leaves with an opened flat tin box and next closed the
lid.
And yes, we kept
them in separate homes made of thorny leaves. A fight took a few seconds and
the loser quickly ran away so injuries were infrequent. I set them free in our
balcony garden after a few days. Looking back, such were our boyish thinking
and fun, but pity the poor little creacture who lost his natural home, and
freedom albeit temporarily. Regards, Peter
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