What are the man-eating animals on the coast of Hong Kong?

1979 In the summer, a tragedy happened at the seaside of Hong Kong: three young people were swimming in the sea. Just as they were about to swim to the shore, the young man swimming behind them was suddenly dragged into the sea by a fierce animal. The unfortunate man didn't even have time to shout. His two companions only saw thick red blood rising from the sea. ...

After the tragedy, people were terrified and made various comments. What animal is so cruel? Most people think it was a shark, but some people suggest that it was an evil Malay crocodile in the sea, because there was a legend that crocodiles ate people along the southern coast of China.

The Malay alligator is the largest crocodile, which generally lives in tropical waters and often swims at sea for a long time. Its skin is very thick, which can prevent salt from penetrating into seawater, and its eyes and kidneys also have the function of discharging salt, so it is very suitable for living in the ocean. It mainly moves along the coast and sometimes enters inland rivers with the tide. Residents in tropical coastal areas of Southeast Asia all know the power of Malay crocodiles. It is so cruel that even fierce tigers are afraid of it. It not only attacks fish, animals and birds, but also attacks humans from time to time. Fishermen working on the water and women washing clothes by the river will be dragged into the water and eaten by it if they are not careful; It is not uncommon to attack people and animals while swimming.

In fact, the coastal areas of South China, including the waters near Hong Kong, were once important habitats for Malay crocodiles. In Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, during the Tang Dynasty, the Malay crocodile did serious harm, hurting many people, and the livestock were almost eaten up, so the people could not produce and lived in poverty. Therefore, Han Yu, a great writer who was the secretariat of Chaozhou at that time, sent someone to throw a pig and a sheep into the water to offer sacrifices to crocodiles, and also wrote Sacrifice to Crocodiles, demanding that crocodiles "migrate south to the sea" within seven days, otherwise "only be killed". Han Yu wrote this article well, but the crocodile continued to do evil. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, there were still many records about Malay alligators in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan and Taiwan Province provinces. For example, in the thirty-third year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1907), Lee Joon, the prefect of Guangdong Navy, visited the South China Sea by boat and saw a big crocodile swimming to the side of the ship, about ten feet long. Eager to eat people, he climbed onto the boat from the gangway next to the boat, viciously rushed at a soldier and scared a soldier with a gun. Lee Joon quickly grabbed the gun from the soldier and fired two shots at the crocodile, wounding it. This matter is recorded in detail in Lee Joon's Journey to the Sea.

It can be seen that from the Western Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Malay crocodiles once lived in the coastal areas of South China for more than two thousand years. Later, due to the influence of climate change, the Malay crocodile was forced to gradually move its habitat to the south, and finally stopped settling in the coastal areas of China. However, at the beginning of this century, Malay crocodiles occasionally appeared along the coast of South China, and 192 1 caught one off the coast of Hong Kong. It is entirely possible for Malay crocodiles to swim to the waters near Hong Kong for food. Therefore, it is completely reasonable to list the Malay crocodile as one of the possible "criminals" in the tragedy of animal cannibalism in the coastal waters of Hong Kong. As for whether the unfortunate young man was eaten by a Malay crocodile or a shark, it is a mystery that can never be solved, because it cannot be verified.