Crowded out, every one …

When will “they” ever learn?

(Everybody, sing!)

Or not.

One of the more interesting realities of Hong Kong: Very little seems to live on this stretch of the island aside from humans, their handful of pets … and some insects.

And that’s about it. Which leaves you to wonder where the rest of the flora and fauna might have gone. And it’s not hard to guess where.

This is a town that is just too crowded for any form of life that isn’t a person or a really small (or hardy) insect.

I’ve seen a few stray cats, in Victoria Park.

One would think this place, warm and damp, with lots of trash lying about at certain times of the day, would be a great place for rats, too. But I haven’t seen one.

Haven’t seen a squirrel. Nor a possum. Nor a snake.

We did see one gecko-like lizard. It just appeared on the wall of the apartment in Wan Chai. (The one we go back to in 10 days.) How it got there, I have no idea. It was small and skinny, and probably hanging on for dear life.

Perhaps the most jarring part of “life” on HK Island — aside from block upon block without a single tree, bush or blade of grass — is the lack of birds here.

Birds can live about anywhere, right?

Well, not here. Perhaps because  they have nowhere to roost?

Perhaps because the avian flu epidemic of a few years back prompted the authorities to wipe out the bird population?

You rarely see pigeons here and pigeons, like rats, can live almost everywhere. Some people call them “flying rats.”

But I can’t tell you the last time I saw one. It’s been weeks. Literally.’

You wake up in the morning, most places in the world, you hear birds chirping. In a lot of those places, birds might even be responsible for your wakening.

Anyway, at the end of the day … I have never been in a place where people — and tiny insects, like ants — are practically all that live here. (Oh, and mosquitos.)

It’s a little bit like Future Shock. What the world might look like if the human population keeps going up and up and up — and we squeeze every other living bird, mammal and reptile off the face of the Earth. Aside from those we plan to eat, of course. The ones in cages, not flying or running free in some patch of forest or grass.

We don’t have that here, either. Forests or grass.

It’s kind of sterile, actually, and it’s more than a little creepy.