Two Years of the Pandemic: How Have Wild Animals Responded?
By Icy Chen
The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in January 2020, shut down global traffic and in many places, also restricted the local movements of people. Countries around the world reported changes in animal behavior, usually for the better as tourists disappeared. But in Hong Kong, while beaches were closed for long stretches, hiking trails and country parks remained open.
Last June, Lucian Cai, a 37-year-old IT Infrastructure Support Engineer who hadn't been able to travel for more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, embarked on his first local hike to cope with his “overwhelming emotions”.
A wild macaque is sitting on the Shing Mun Reservoir Walk trail. Photo by Icy Chen.
"I usually get out of the hiking very early. The open mountains give me the opportunity to clear my brain and refresh myself," said Cai. "I can also often see wildlife on the early morning trails, such as wild boars and birds."
The impact of the pandemic on Hong Kong's native wildlife appears to be less positive, as the epidemic's blockade encourages people to visit the wilderness more frequently and enter the terrestrial wildlife habitat.
On the other hand, the number of shipments was reduced, allowing marine wildlife to be expected to be away from disturbance.
More Hong Kong people, such as Cai, have been seen going outside during the pandemic, as the number of mountain rescue occurrences has climbed from 602 in 2020 to 951 last year according to the city's Fire Services Department.
Within the first four months of this year, the number of Fire Services Department operations to rescue trapped hikers tripled to 426, compared to the same period in 2020.
"The hiking trails are heaving with people when we go to the country parks," said Chan Tsz-kin, the Conservation Education Manager of The Nature Conservancy Hong Kong. "Places that were normally quiet may have hundreds of thousands of people out there."
There has also been an increase in wild animals being rescued.
The number of wildlife cases brought to rescue centers of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden by the public in the last few years, has gone up because of COVID, said Paul Crow, the senior conservation officer at KFBG.
"This is not necessarily a good thing because there are a certain number of Hong Kong people, who would intervene prematurely ," Crow added.
In May 2019, the Wildlife Rescue Center under KFBG received its 50,000th injured and seized wild animals since its inception in 1994. Soon in February of this year, less than three years later, the number reached 60,000.
"When some hikers see a baby bird on the ground, they would think 'Oh, we have to help it,' pick it up and carry it to the rescue center," Crow said.
However, that could be a disturbance.
It could be a baby bird who had just left the nest for the first time. It could be its first flight and its parents were standing in the near trees keeping an eye on it and helping it to learn to fly, Crow said.
"With all good intentions, human beings step in and kidnap the baby bird, bringing it to the rescue center," Crow said.
"Very often, the bird's parents are nearby. Probably due to fear of humans, they hide elsewhere and usually return to their original location after a minimum of half an hour," KFBG wrote on their Facebook.
KFBG encourages the public to leave wild animals, such as young birds, where they are when they encounter them and to keep a safe distance of at least ten meters to observe their condition.
Dr. Fiona Woodhouse, the deputy director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, called it an “encroachment on the country parks”.
"Recently there's been more and more of a trend for people to go into the natural areas for recreation which leads to potential degradation and potential conflict or negative influences for the wild animals as well," said Dr. Woodhouse.
Many of the new members in the rank of hikers are novice with a less-than-complete knowledge of nature and wildlife.
If people find animals that are in a dangerous situation, KFBG recommends placing young wild animals in a safe place near the spot where they are found, and their parents will follow the calls of their young to find them.
According to data from Marine Department, vessel arrivals win Hong Kong decreased by 45.5% year-on-year in 2020 and continue to decrease by 28.4% in 2021 from the 2020 level.
Ferries between mainland China and Macau services at Marine Ferry Terminals have been suspended since January 2020 in China Ferry Terminal and Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal and in February 2020 in Macau Ferry Terminal. Cross-boundary ferry and cruise passenger trips reach 0 in 2021, while in 2019 the figure is 14,305 thousand.
Dr. Woodhouse expects the positive impact that Covid brings to marine wildlife.
"We're not having the traffic that's running them over," she said.
Hong Kong has always had one of the world’s busiest ports with nearly 18.0 million TEUs of containers being handled in 2021, according to Hong Kong Marine and Port Board.
The port handled around 270 international container liners every week, connecting to nearly 600 destinations throughout the world.
Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, also called Chinese white dolphins. Photo by Aquatic Animal Virtopsy Lab.
According to the annual Aquatic Animal Virtopsy Lab report released by researchers at the City University of Hong Kong, the number of dolphins, porpoises, and whales found washed up dead on Hong Kong shorelines in incidents, known as strandings, fell to 32 in 2021, down from 52 the previous year and 55 in 2019.
Two strandings cases involving Chinese white dolphins occurred in 2021, compared to 11 in 2020; the majority of incidents involved Indo-Pacific finless porpoises with 24 compared to 35 in 2020.
Simultaneously, the number of dolphins in Hong Kong seas increased marginally.
Brian Kot Chin-wing, principal investigator at the CityU lab and an assistant professor in its department of infectious diseases and public health said in an interview with the SCMP that the reduction in dolphin and porpoise mortality was most likely caused by a stop in ferry sailings between Hong Kong and Macau as a result of COVID travel restrictions.
White dolphins in China's Pearl River Delta have a dangerous existence. According to a 2020 emergency action report by 15 environmental groups and area colleges, the population of Hong Kong waters has decreased by nearly 80% in the previous 15 years.
The Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, a marine conservation NGO, said that the number of Chinese white dolphins in Hong Kong seas decreased from 188 in 2003 to 32 in 2019.
"Although the number has increased slightly to 37 in 2021, it is still quite low," says Chang Ka-tai, the society's chairman.
Even though these figures are positive, Judy Wan from Ocean Park Conservation Foundation said it is not possible to draw any definite conclusion on whether COVID has had a positive impact on marine animals.
"We need a longer period to observe as well as investigate, and for marine animals, the impact of the epidemic is short-term," said Wan.
With dining restricted and food delivery up, the pandemic has meant more single-use plastic, which isn't always disposed of properly, and billions of disposable masks have been dumped into the water, adding to the level of microplastics in the seas, said Hong Kong Dolphinwatch, a local company providing ecological tours to see the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins.
With a population of roughly 7.5 million people and a labor force of about 4 million, the number of disposable face masks used on a daily basis in Hong Kong could be in the millions, leading to about 10 to 15 tonnes of masks disposed of in landfills each day.
A total of 1.56 billion masks were inappropriately released into the oceans in 2020, according to a report released by the City University of Hong Kong in December.
The city produced 48.7 tonnes of clinical waste per day between March 19 and 23 last year, according to data from the Environmental Protection Department. The amount of garbage is more than twice the capacity of the city's sole clinical waste incinerator, which can only treat 20 to 24 tonnes per day in Kwai Chung.
Improper disposal of surgical masks can result in substantial microplastic pollution, equivalent to polluting more than 54,800 Olympic swimming pools of seawater annually, a report from the City University of Hong Kong writes.
Microplastics can adversely affect the growth and development of marine organisms through ingestion and entanglement and accumulate in marine animals through the food chain.
"So whether the COVID has positively changed the survival of local marine wildlife?" questioned Hong Kong Dolphinwatch. "It's too early to say yet."
Clinical waste
Clinical waste is any potentially hazardous substance generated by clinics, hospitals, and laboratories. These include used or contaminated sharp instruments, laboratory waste, and all infectious items, according to the Environmental Protection Department. Clinical waste cannot be recycled because of the potential health risk, thus it must be burnt or buried in a landfill following treatment
Microplastics
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles with a length of less than 5mm. They usually arise from the creation of commercial products and the breakdown of bigger polymers.
