Letters | Most dangerous animal? Not the Bryde’s whale for sure

Readers write in about the death of a whale in Hong Kong waters, and why the killing of a wild boar sends young people the wrong message

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The carcass of the Bryde’s whale is found near Shelter Island in Sai Kung on July 31. Photo: May Tse

Published: 11:30am, 4 Aug 2023

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In 1963, at the Bronx Zoo in New York, there was a display entitled “the most dangerous animal in the world”. Visitors to this exhibit found themselves looking in a mirror. Yes, man is indeed the most dangerous animal in the world.

The sad and unnecessary death of a Bryde’s whale in the waters off Sai Kung highlights how humans cannot help going off and gawking at a rarely sighted animal, even if it might result in its demise. Similarly, the recent case of a wild boar biting humans at Fo Tan station could have been the understandable reaction of a scared animal.

Hong Kong’s lands and surrounding waters are rich in biodiversity. Our encroachment on these areas is leading to more interactions with wild animals – with adverse outcomes for them.

Let’s try to respect their rights instead of intruding on their habitats, catching them as delicacies or hunting them for sport. Otherwise we will continue to live up to the sobriquet of “the most dangerous animal in the world”.

Thomas Tang, Mid-Levels