TNAG-0468-FCO40-533-Legislation-for-protection-of-wild-life-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 118

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PENN

FX

PENN

Lance

We thought one way to do it would be for us to call and make a very large order, one which they wouldn't be able to fill and then we would say "Well, how many can you get?" However,

our estimate for a large order was a severe underestimate. We said initially "Can you get as many as 20 eagles in one day?" They said "What! We sell more than 50 in one day. Any day.'

So this approach had to be stopped. What we did then was call for several days running, make a telephone call to three or four of the dealers and ask them how many eagles they had in that day, or how many they had coming in that day.

One dealer had 30 on Tuesday which were sold when we called; again. - We called too late on Wednesday, - another 30 had been

sold.

This produced a figure of over 10,000 birds in the winter months; mainly buzzards, kestrels, and a selection of owls; and then less frequently peregrines, goshawks, vultures and eagles.

We halved this figure for exaggeration, ignored the summer months completely and the smaller shops, and arrived at an annual figure of between 5000 and 6000 raptors a year, which we think is rather

conservative.

Hong Kong lies on a major migration route across the China coast, and many of these birds are caught on their winter journey south. The Colony is itself an end stop, and also a resting place for those on longer journeys. Some species fly from the Arctic Circle as far as Australia and New Zealand, and birds of prey travel from Russia, Siberia and China itself to Burma, the Philippines and other South East Asian countries. Many of them are trapped just north of Hong

Kong by Chinese peasants anxious to supplement their incomes.

Lance

In a Commune just outside Canton the Revolutionary Committee Chairman was quite proud of the fact that many of the peasants in his Commune were quite skilled at trapping birds and at catching wild animals. He also mentioned they used to catch many snakes. And these were then either eaten by the people

themselves or were then sent into Canton vía local markets to

be sold, perhaps, in Canton or even in Hong Kong.

Waterfront atmosphere, unloading from junks.

The Chinese insist upon fresh-killed meat, so most of it

domestic or wild - comes in live, involving extreme cruelty as we shall shortly hear. Throughout the winter, a whole range of birds