Larry the Liz

Hong Kong has according to the Biodiversity Database about 80 native species of reptiles.In the zoo there are about about 70 species (including foreigners) on display. There are also 20 species in the reptile house in Tuen Mun with about 20 species on display and of course Pui Pui in the Wetlands Park.

It was therefore billed as the largest show of its kind to be held in Asia, when on 24 september, 1000 "endangered" reptiles and amphibians went on exhibition in the East Point City Shopping Mall in Tseung Kwan O (just in time for National Day and Mid Autumn public holidays). Tickets for the first day was sold out within 2 hours of going on sale.

The use of shopping malls as exhibition venues is, I am sure, not just a HK thing, We have had, Picasso at the IFC, dinosaurs at City Plaza, Tai Koo Shing, and currently at Olympian city,Tai Kok Tsu, dinosaurs on loan from Beijing Museum of Natural History,including a "paraceratherium tienshanensis". It is an interesting concept taking exhibitions to the masses and/or using exhibition as a marketing tool to draw people into the malls. I discovered a non starsmucks coffee bar whose latte and toasted ham and cheese sarni would itselft justify a trip into east Kowloon.

But of course we were there on a mission.... to identify Larry the Liz.

I live on the 17 floor of modern appartment block and have one or more resident gekko's (gekko chinensis).Sometimes at 5am "it" runs acoss the ceiling, down the wall and takes up residence behind a favorite picture for the day.The following night "it" moves on. There was also an Australian blue tongued skink which apart from the tongue (and size) was not dissimilar to the 2 Chinese Forest Skinks which have crossed my path locally - I assume that neither were australians on long distance walk about!!!

The only discordant thing about the exhibition,

• wasn't the queuing;
• wasn't the fact that there were fewer species than implied by the "1000" figure nor I believe the 100 species mentioned in the small text.
• It wasn't the fact that neither the Chameleons or nor anything else on show which the flyers implied were rare, were not. I did a check on the Cites Database and the IUCN Red List.
• It was the fact that I didn't realise that the event was a fundraiser organised by an "evangelical" organisation. To be blunt a friend of mine from school was "turned" by an "evangelist" group and since then I have been profoundly uncomfortable with such organisations. In the matter of cults, The Chinese government and I may hold not dissimilar opinions.

Posted at 10/09/2006 06:51:00 AM by David Middleburgh   Permalink

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