Wednesday, July 25, 2007

China's ecological disasters

TV scenes of gazillions of field mice over-running rice fields in Hunan, reminded me of rabbits swarming in Australia. Although rising flood waters were blamed for the mice infestation, natural enemies like snakes and owls have been eaten out of existence by the Chinese. One report estimated that residents consumed 3 tons of wild-caught snakes in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan everyday!

Now it seems that hungry Cantonese in Guangdong are happily importing the field mice for their dining tables. I hope they won't trigger off another new epidemic like SARS!

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