The Hong Kong newt (Paramesotriton hongkongensis) Image: Thomas Brown, Flickr
NewtNotes
Issue #1, October 2024
Saving the Hong Kong Newt Dr. Anthony Lau, Lingnan University, Hong Kong
Please join us on Monday, October 28th, at 6 PM for an exciting presentation by Anthony Lau, PhD, a wonderful herpetologist and wildlife ecologist from Hong Kong. Dr. Lau will share his team's experience raising $40,000 for a major art exhibit focused on the endangered Hong Kong warty newt. The event will be hosted by Dr. Gary Buccarelli from UC Davis.
Dr. Lau, from Lingnan University, Hong Kong, and his team have achieved significant success in their campaign to protect the Hong Kong newt. A Zoom meeting for the Newt Brigade will be held at 6 PM on October 28th. Please mark your calendars — we look forward to learning more about how to create a successful science-art collaboration to support our conservation efforts.
FYI, a listing of Dr. Lau's publications can be found here.
Short video about the genesis of the "Life (cycle) of the Hong Kong Newt" Crowdfunding project
“A novel fundraising model for conservation of a non- charismatic species: lessons learned from a crowd-funded Eco-art exhibition”
Funding for conservation is limited and often biased towards charismatic megafauna. Funding agencies are less likely to support research projects focusing solely on herpetofauna that are relatively unknown to the public. Roadkill is a serious threat to the Hong Kong newt (Paramesotriton hongkongensis), which is named after the city where it was first discovered but remained relatively unknown to its 7 million human inhabitants.
To raise awareness about this threatened species and raise funds for its conservation, we organized a crowd-funded, single-species Eco-art exhibition that showcased different aspects of the Hong Kong newt through high-quality art in various formats, including photography, videography, scientific illustration, and installation art. In a relatively short time, we managed to crowdsource the funds (> $40,000) needed to host the exhibition, raise awareness about the conservation of this species, and conduct systematic research on the roadkill issue threatening this species using the funds raised. Here, we share the lessons learned through this experience, reflect on its impact on the conservation of a lesser-known local fauna, and highlight the potential applicability of this model.
