Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve Waterfall 2013

The Tai Po Kau Nature Reserve, also called Tai Po Kau Special Area, is a nature reserve in the

Tai Po Tai Po is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong. It refers to the vicinity of the traditional market towns in the area presently known as Tai Po Old Market or Tai Po Kau Hui () (the original "Tai Po Market") on the north of Lam Tsu ...

area of the

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

in northern Hong Kong. The area comprises a dense, hilly woodland with over 100 species of trees and numerous streams and rivers. It is one of the most biologically diverse forests in Hong Kong. It is noted by the

Hong Kong Bird Watching Society The Hong Kong Bird Watching Society (HKBWS) is an environmental non-governmental organization dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats in Hong Kong, a territory on the southern coast of China. It is a BirdLife International affil ...

and others as one of the best locations for seeing forest birds in Hong Kong.

Background

Around a hundred years ago, the area was barren and deforested. A tree plantation aimed at afforestation was started by the government in 1926, initially consisting of mainly pine. Later on, Taiwan acacia,

paperbark ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of ''Leptospermum''). They range in size f ...

, camphor and Brisbane box were also planted. As decades passed, native trees like sweet gum and

litsea cubeba ''Litsea cubeba'', the aromatic litsea or may chang, is an evergreen tree or shrub 5–12 meters high in the family Lauraceae. It is native to Southern Chinese region including Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Taiwan and Fujian, and Southeast Asian co ...

started to succeed the planted stock and today a large diversity of both native and nonnative trees grow on the hillsides here. The area was designated as a nature reserve in 1977. South China tigers were reported in the area by villagers into the early 20th century.

Flora and Fauna

160 bird species, 102 butterfly species, and over 50 dragonfly species inhabit the reserve, along with numerous

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur o ...

and

herpetofauna Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...

. The area is noted for its diversity of reptiles, specifically snakes. Common birds include crested bulbul, chestnut-winged cuckoo, collared scops owl, black drongo and spotted dove. Rare mammals like

Chinese pangolin The Chinese pangolin (''Manis pentadactyla'') is a pangolin native to the northern Indian subcontinent, northern parts of Southeast Asia and southern China. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2014, as the ...

and

masked palm civet The masked palm civet (''Paguma larvata''), also called the gem-faced civet, is a palm civet species native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List since 2008 as it occurs in many p ...

can be found in the reserve. The exceptional biodiversity in Tai Po Kau is due to the maturity of the forest. It is the most expansive mature subtropical secondary forest in Hong Kong at 460 hectares.

References

External links

*
Hong Kong Bird Watching Society

* * Country parks and special areas of Hong Kong Tai Po District {{HongKong-geo-stub

Background

Flora and Fauna

See also

References

External links