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Theodora Yu

Hong Kong’s lush forests are teeming with more wildlife ranging from birds arriving from neighbouring regions to newly discovered reptile species, experts have found, as they urge authorities to devise a conservation list to protect vulnerable local species.
The call by the city’s conservationists to formulate a “red list” – a long-awaited measure since 2014 – coincided with National Ecology Day on Saturday.
Marking the occasion, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said the government’s first five-year plan would advance measures to protect the environment.
“The government is, for the first time, formulating a five-year plan that aligns with the national 15th five-year plan’s policy direction to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, pursue green development, and boost growth so as to improve ecological environment quality, and steadily pursue green transition, build a liveable city, and realise a beautiful Hong Kong,” he said.
Gary Ades, head of fauna conservation at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG), called the recent discoveries “positive” signs.
“We have gotten the brown wood owl … the Chinese barbet and the black-chinned yuhina, that expanded its range into Hong Kong – a good sign because it shows us that some of these species found our forests mature enough to find places to nest and food to feed on,” Ades said.
The city’s forests had attracted birds from nearby regions, with the brown wood owl coming from Guangdong province forests, he said.
It took around 50 to 100 years for forests to mature, Ades added.
The best forests in Hong Kong with a diverse tree mix were in Tai Po Kau – an area south of Tai Po – and Ma On Shan, as well as some parts of The Peak, he said.

Kadoorie Farm had also been running a forest restoration programme to plant native trees and shrubs in local woodland to enhance the habitat for plants, animals, birds and insects, Ades said, adding that interdisciplinary collaboration was essential to understanding how forest ecosystems recover.
Several new species, previously unknown worldwide, have also been discovered in Hong Kong in recent years. They included two new soft coral species off Sung Kong Island early this year, the Mai Po box jellyfish in 2023, a jumping spider in 2019 and the Hong Kong tree gecko in 2018.
“Hong Kong is still a place where the biodiversity, although it was already very rich, is actually richer than we know,” Ades said.
Juha Merilae, chair professor in ecology and biodiversity at the University of Hong Kong, noted that the city provided limited resources to monitor population trends of most species, and credited much of the existing knowledge to records by resident scientists.
He said many taxonomic groups, such as reptiles, remained rather “poorly explored” in the academic field, excluding birds and mammals.
“Compared with Singapore, where many naturalists recorded local biodiversity historically, Hong Kong has unfortunately much less data,” Merilae said.

Despite its small size and dense population, the city is home to more than 3,300 species of vascular plants, 55 terrestrial mammals and over 580 bird species, according to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
But experts cautioned that many of the vulnerable species and habitat types lacked sufficient protection.
A 2025 study by 24 local ecologists and specialists assessed the conservation status of 886 species across eight animal groups, finding that 21 had disappeared from Hong Kong, such as the black-headed ibis.
A quarter of the assessed species were at risk of local extinction, including the Eurasian otter and the Chinese pangolin, the WWF-Hong Kong report said.
Both Ades and Merilae urged the government to formulate a local red list of plants and animal species in need of preservation.

The Environment and Ecology Bureau published a Hong Kong biodiversity strategy and action plan, known as BSAP, in 2016 to conserve biodiversity. The latest version released in December outlines priority actions through 2035, including habitat restoration and wetland conservation.
Authorities first pledged to draw up Hong Kong’s own list in 2014, aiming to model it on the global red list maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
While the local list has yet to be seen, mainland China has had its own red list of biodiversity since 2013, which was updated in 2023 to strengthen conservation efforts.
Ades said a local red list could highlight the endangered species in Hong Kong and connect them with action plans that mapped out and managed protection efforts of those species, such as the Eurasian otter – one of the city’s “rarest mammals” – and the crab-eating mongoose.
The globally endangered black-faced spoonbill and the Chinese pangolin were among the species with a conservation plan in place, he added.
Merilae echoed Ades’ views: “There may be a species fairly common globally so the IUCN list considers it to be non-threatened whereas that species faces threats in Hong Kong … and should be protected.”
He noted that the king cobra, a species of snake classed as “vulnerable” on the IUCN list, was “endangered” on the Chinese red list.
Ades also noted that the yellow-breasted bunting, a critically endangered bird species in Hong Kong that had adapted to open farmland areas in northern Hong Kong as its core habitat, was at risk of becoming locally extinct once these sites were demolished to make way for the Northern Metropolis megaproject.
“It all comes to a balance between the needs of the species and the community in terms of development,” Ades said.
In a response to the South China Morning Post, the Agricultural, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the first phase of the list was currently under preparation.
“Additional time was required to ensure the assessment was conducted rigorously, that consensus was reached among participating experts, and that the approach was aligned across taxonomic groups,” a spokesman said.
He added the government would leverage the environmental impact assessment process to identify and safeguard important habitats and “ensure that development and conservation move forward hand in hand” for the Northern Metropolis project.


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The brown wood owl is among birds found in Hong Kong’s forests. Photo: KFBG

The Mai Po box jellyfish was discovered in 2023. Photo: May Tse

A previously unknown species of jumping spider was found in Hong Kong in 2019. Photo: Handout 

Eurasian otters are at risk of local extinction in Hong Kong. Photo: KFBG, WWF Hong Kong

The Hong Kong tree gecko was discovered in 2018. Photo: HKBU

What’s a Burmese python doing in Causeway Bay? Expert links reptile to rain

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden identified the snake as a Burmese python, noting its geometric patterns and its distinct shades of light and dark brown, black and white Photo: Handout

Burmese pythons have distinctive geometric patterns on their scales. Photo: Corbis via Getty Images

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Tai O on Lantau Island is a high-risk area, the study found. Photo: Eugene Lee

(From left) The Hong Kong Red Cross’ Yvonne Yu, Eleanor Lam and Eva Yeung, the charity’s senior manager for community preparedness. Photo: Dickson Lee

News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Conservationists highlight new species uncovered in city while urging authorities to formulate ‘red list’ to protect existing vulnerable ones


Conservationists highlight new species uncovered in city while urging authorities to formulate ‘red list’ to protect existing vulnerable ones.


Singapore

Environment and Ecology Bureau

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

Hong Kong’s biodiversity ‘richer than we know’ but many species lack protection

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Conservationists highlight new species uncovered in city while urging authorities to formulate ‘red list’ to protect existing vulnerable ones

Conservationists highlight new species uncovered in city while urging authorities to formulate ‘red list’ to protect existing vulnerable ones