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  • Celestial 天上: Purveyors of the finest Asian Dub since 1992.

    Listen to (and purchase) all four albums here:

    www.hongkongdubstation.com

    Wanna be friends? peter(at)drummusic.net

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  • Herps & Mutts

    Wednesday, Jun 3, 2009 8:25PM / Standard Entry / Members only
    1 comment

    "Herps" are how herpetologists refer to the animals they study - which usually covers both reptiles and amphibians, i.e. snakes, frogs, lizards, etc, and so there isn't one term that covers all  these classifications. Anyway, I'm definitely not a herpetologist, but I do see the odd snake (and other creatures) when I'm walking the dog in the morning, up the mountain above where I live on Lantau Island.


    Just over a week ago I encountered a smallish Cobra, that didn't seem to be moving very much and seemed to be swollen all along it's body. On getting its attention it turned towards me and opened its mouth - then out came another snake, a Red-Neck Keel-Back, dead of course, but more or less the same size as the Cobra. The Cobra then disappeared into a drainage hole, and I relaxed - they are the most aggressive of Hong Kong snakes, allegedly. The next day, the dead Keel-Back had moved about 10 metres down the catchwater. I can only assume the Cobra came back for another go at digesting it, before realising it was probably too large...

    Then last Friday I rescued a puppy halfway up the old road - part of a pack of wild dogs that have been hanging around the area ever since the new Tung Chung Road was being built. This one was only a few months old, one of a litter of four I've seen up there,; undernourished, mangy and nervous, but she seemed to relax once I picked her up, and even wagged her tail. She's now with the Lantau animal rescue organisation if anyone's interested: www.pals.org.hk

    On Sunday morning I came across a discarded python skin - of course all snakes shed their skin as they grow - and the snake was probably far away by then. This was a particularly good specimen, and my dog Lily was very interested, but also scared. Although she's only got a brain the size of a walnut, she seems to instinctively know that snakes are dangerous. Not bad for a Lantau Golden Receiver. Mind you - whilst it makes sense to be nervous of live snakes, surely a cast-off skin is considerably less threatening? But after I picked the skin up and hung it on a fence, Lily starting barking at it as it swayed in the wind. Then, as she was barking, she stepped back on a rock, the rock moved and she completely freaked out, jumping about three feet upwards and backwards through the air. I laughed out loud. Then I folded up the snake skin, took it home, and hung it across a Frangipani in my garden. On seeing it there both my two-year-old daughter and grown-up wife were both somewhat skittish:



    And who can blame them.

    Five minutes later into my walk that morning, I happened upon a small Red-Neck Keel-Back with it's jaws firmly clamped around a frog. As they are venomous, though they rarely harm people, I didn't want to get too close, but got this picture just as the snake let go of the paralysed frog:



    You can definitely see why they're called Red-Necks. I then moved on quickly to allow her to finish her meal in peace, and also because Lily, the walnut-brain, had suddenly got somewhat more courageous. Home for breakfast.

    More on Herps and Mutts soon.

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  • “Celestial 天上” are a Hong Kong based collective who have produced a series of four albums:...

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  • Occupation:  Musician , Music Producer , Composer
  • Gender: Male
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