Hong Kong has rich biodiversity. This around 1,100 km2 land is the home of plenty wildlife, including over 550 bird species, 57 mammal species, 110 species of amphibians and reptiles, more than 3,000 species of vascular plants and over 600 species of insects. They are not only neighbours to us, but also the inhabitants of Hong Kong who share the same piece of land with us.
To promote Hong Kong's biodiversity and protect the natural ecology, the Hong Kong Baptist University Library, the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, and the College of International Education of Hong Kong Baptist University jointly established the website "Hong Kong Wildtracks", which combines different elements of geographic information, ecology and scientific research. Despite research and education work on biodiversity usually rely on vision, senses other than vision are very useful in exploring and studying the nature. In order to promote local nature and biodiversity to the general public, the website "Hong Kong Wildtracks" adopts nature sound as the theme. Along with information from bird research, an interactive audio map incorporating an avifauna database is built. Universities and general public can have a better understanding on the local nature and conducting scientific research.
The "Hong Kong Wildtracks" website engages interactive Hong Kong map and it divides Hong Kong into more than a thousand grids of one square kilometre. From 2016 to 2019, different parties participated in the survey. They included staff from the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, voluntary bird surveyors, surveyors from Ho Koon Nature Education cum Astronomical Centre and students from the College of International Education of Hong Kong Baptist University have conducted the bird survey. They covered different corners in Hong Kong, even hiking up to the highest peaks. Birds that came Hong Kong to breed and winter were surveyed in a systematic way.
In the past, survey results were generally presented only to the members of the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society in paper format. "Hong Kong Wildtracks" presents the information in an electronic database of nature sounds and bird diversity information. Bird diversity information on breeding season from 1993 to 1996, wintering season from 2001 to 2005, breeding season and wintering season of 2016-2019 is presented in the website. From the paper format report to a "Hong Kong Wildtracks" electronic database, we target to let more people know about the Hong Kong nature and promote education and research on ecology and environmental conservation in Hong Kong.
