Misnamed Animal Posters in New World Centre
by Toni
2004 Nov 10

If you have ever been to "The Amazon" in New World Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui, you probably were impressed by the rainforest-styled animal posters on both sides of the tunnel like I was. At the very beginning I was glad to see so many brilliant and beautiful animal pictures posted there. I even started to think that they can promote a beautiful side of herps. However, I made the problem out after a couple of seconds - the names, both English and Chinese, shown are wrong or inappropriate in 6 out of about 10 pictures.

No doubt some species in the pictures could be considerably little-known to the designer, producer, publicity agent or whoever handled them and I think it is reasonable that they do not exactly know the names of the animals. Nevertheless, I think the unit in charge should have made sure all information is correct and has the responsibility for all misinformation it spread to the public. To me, it is on no account a trivial problem since the site there is one of the busiest spots in Hong Kong where a great deal of general public pass by and would catch sight of such many attractive pictures every single day, and naturally have an incorrect concept of the animals names thus. I am hereby writing this since the pictures are still showing there and they have been posted for over one year. I am to clearly point out the wrong names and tell the correct names at below:

The Amazon is located between New World Centre and the Space Museum, which is a two-storeys underground shopping mall		Shown: Iguana Fact: Although this lizard belongs to the iguanas family (Iguanidae), it is known as Anole but not Iguana.
Shown: Poison Arrow Frog Fact: This is a Hylid Treefrog. Poison Arrow Frog is another group of tiny frogs come in many brilliant and different colors.		Shown: Poison Arrow Frog Fact: This is a Red-eyed Treefrog (Agalchnis callidryas), the famous species which we often see in pictures, movies and advertisement.
Shown: Tarantula Fact: This is Argiope Spider but not tarantuula. Tarantula is a group of other spiders.		Shown: Tarantula Fact: This is Argiope Spider again.
Shown: Tarantula Fact: Not tarantuula. This is an Orb-weaving Spider of the family Araneidae, maybe Argiope spider.		Shown: Anaconda Fact: Finally here comes the correct one. This is the famous Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus).

I hope these would have helped. If you have any questions about the animals feel free to let me know.