It has lasted about 400 million years without having to evolve on Earth, yet the horseshoe crab will need funding to survive another decade in Hong Kong.
Ocean Park announced yesterday that its attendance boom over the past year means a funding boost from HK$2 million to HK$5 million this year to conservation projects, with one scheme to focus on increasing numbers of the prehistoric crustaceans in the wild.
Horseshoe crab numbers have plummeted by an estimated 90 per cent in the past four years in waters around Hong Kong.
Other projects to continue receiving funding from the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation include a response programme to save stranded mammals, and Chinese white dolphin research and preservation strategies.
Money will also flow to a number of international projects, including one for sea turtles in Sri Lanka.
City University biologist Paul Shin Kam-shing said a 2002 survey found there were between one and two crabs per 100 square metres of their regular habitat.