Thailand, December 25th to January 8th

This is my first trip report on this website. I have been focusing on wildlife more and more during my travels in last 10 years, but this was only my fourth trip built entirely around wildlife and first or second where I researched even species without much cool factor for general public (giraffes, sloths, elephants, tigers…). I do realize this trip was not as successful and might not bring as much inspiration as others on this website, but as I used mammalwatching.com extensively during my research and feel some kind of payback is in order. Also, I would hope my report might help independent travellers.

This was my second trip to Thailand, the first one being one month long and focusing on usual tourist stuff some two years ago.

We flew to Phuket, spent two nights to relax, moved to Krung Ching in Khao Luang NP (KC) for two nights, overnight train to Bangkok and two subsequent nights in Bangkok (BK), 3 nights in Khao Yai (KY) and 4 nights in Kaeng Krachan (KK).

Below is the, fairly ambitious, list of target taxons: Under „target“ I mean a taxon which I was purposedly looking for and had more or less intense desire to observe it, whilst I deemed such an observation realistic.

Mammals

Reptiles

I respect that this website is in English, but only writing out the names above filled me with dread, once again, regarding the English nomenclature. 🙂

Legend:

Mammal
Reptile, non avian
Bird
Other
* first time recording the species

The beginning

We flew to Phuket with Air China. Except for feeling of verging towards a morally grey zone of sending our money to this area of the world, I cannot share other traveller’s complaints about neither the airline, not Beijing Capital Airport transfer.

We slept quite long after the first night and a few hours after were dedicated trying to pay for the Khao Yai acommodation reservation. Eventually a hotel receptionist paid for us with online banking, as there was no Krungthai bank in Kamala.

My wife wanted to chill on the beach, but a short scouting mission deterred her, so she decided to take a walk with me at waterfall and beyond to the rubber plantation. Apart from a few birds, we encountered a juvenile clouded monitor, just at the eye level in a tree right next to the path, and on the way back I obliviously walked right past an elongated turtle*, luckily my wife was there to point it out. Satisfied, she headed for a massage while I stayed till 8:30, but to no luck except for fish and invertebrates.

Krung Ching Waterfall

Next morning we went to a surprisingly remote bus station, almost missing our bus to Nakhon Si Thammarat. After some 5 hours of travel, we got lunch and took a pre-arranged taxi to Ban Phitam. I had fairly incorrect understanding how the area actually looks like, thinking that the village is right at the edge of the national park. It is true, that a forest starts there, but it is further 5 km to the headquarters on a tarmac road in a hillside. There are bungalows in the park and whether you have your own wheels or not, I would definitely recommend them over staying in the village, as you would be right in the middle of things.

I walked about 2 km uphill from the village in the afternoon, finding only insects. There were probably snakes in shrubbery, but I am snake-blind. At around 5:30 I turned back under light rain, and after a few hundred meters I heard a rustle in bushes by the road. I could not see anything, neither anything popped up on thermal scope, but after a few minutes, a growl confirmed my suspection of an Asian elephant. As I was on foot, I did not wait around to say hello and made a hasty, but still dignified, of course, retreat to the village. After dinner (which we had to have brought from local village folks, as restaurant was some 2 km away), I walked towards the hot springs, finding a few species of frogs, some interesting gastropods and a local guy, who understand what I was doing and showed me some photos of frogs and malayan pit vipers, found probably in the temple grounds a few days or weeks ago. Upon returning to the village, I considered going to the temple, but it was occupied by a pack of feral dogs, so I took no chances.

It was raining the next morning: We actually hit three days of rain among fair weather period by our stay, and our results speak for it. My wife was not feeling well, so after rain stopped a bit at 9 am, I hitchhiked a car to the park. There I discovered, that the trail to the waterfall was closed due to the weather, so I am restricted to the headquarters are only. Shortly it started raining again. I arranged with the rangers to take me back to the village at 9 pm and spent the rest of the day here. Obviously, there were nearly no other visitors  and none spent more than an hour. Wildlife observations were poor, though. Except for few bird species, two Cynopterus fruit bats were roosting in a youth’s toilet block, to which also some frogs took liking. Calotes emma were not uncommon on the grounds. The rain stopped briefly at 3 pm and I saw a ratufa, unfortunately a black giant squirell, not the pale one, which was one of my main targets here. Not long after, I discovered a small animal in a tree with the thermal scope: Excited, it seemed like a treeshrew, but my excitement dropped as I discovered it was in fact a Sundasciurus sp.

I hoped for a slow loris and some flying squirells, and, of course, snakes, after dark, but no luck again. I saw a river crab, though, Terrapotamon phaibuli, which is apparently famous.

The next morning the weather was better, but I only did some birdwatching around the village, before our taxi picked us up and brought us back to the bus station, from where we took a bus to Thung Song and after a dinner on the food market, the best meal we had in Thailand, whilst briefly observing a  Rattus sp., we took an overnight train to Bangkok.

Bangkok

So far, our trip was not going great as far as wildlife watching goes. Only four mammal species and one notable reptile. Furthermore, our chances for „Malay“ species were gone, as we spent the rest of our time in central Thailand.

My main target was northern treeshrew, with various turtle species and, of course, snakes. We arrived before 8 am and my plan was to visit Chatukak park, close to Krung Thep train station. Sorting the route took quite some time, though, and when we arrived to the Chatukak Park metro station, we found baggage storage boxes not working. Our hotel was close to the Victory monument, so we went there to drop off bags, and as it was quite hot already, went for sightseeing instead, visiting Wat Pho for the 2nd time and Wat Arun for the first. As far as mammal watching goes, watching hundreds of Thais dressed in movie costumes with their proprietary photographers in Wat Arun is something worth mentioning. I left Wat Arun later than I desired and only arrived to Chatukak Park at 5 pm – my wife visited Khao San instead.

Northern tree shrews* are super easy to see in the park, and as I never had seen a tree shrew before,  ven though I had spent half a year in south-east Asia, this was a moment I cherished. Finlayson’s squirrels are omnipresent and well habituated, sometimes being fed by locals’ hands. Water monitors are not uncommon and birdlife in the evening seemed the richest I have seen in Bangkok. Still during daylight, I spotted a first turtle, unfortunately a red eared slider. I waited in the park till it got dark, hoping to see some vipers. As you might guess by now, I had no luck with snakes, but I did scare a Rattus sp. foraging in some branches on the ground and saw a pair of unidentified owls, which were not keen on my flashlight: for the first of many times, I forgot I had a red light with me. I also saw a few geckoes with interesting blue tint, not IDed as of now, probably some common Hemidactylus and, quite more interestingly, a yellow-headed temple turtle*.

By the way, I read some concerns about safety visiting the Bangkok’s parks after dark: There are so many people jogging , riding bicycles or playing different sports all the way till the park closes, that I cannot see need of any concern. One note, though: Even though

The next morning I ventured to Lumphini park in search of other turtles. Even shortly after sunset, there were many locals doing various sports or relaxing. The park has really strong water monitor overpopulation and I saw maybe a hundred of them over the course of the morning. Red-eared sliders are unfortunately by far the most common and opening a turtle soup stand nearby comes in mind, but I did manage to see a few yellow-headed temple turtles and luckily, in the very end, one Cuora couro*. Unfortunately, no Malayemys. By the way, the evening before our arrival, a very large reticulated python was spotted in the park, the news even made it to Bangkok post.

During the heat of the day we visited China Town, which was all closed on 31^st December, so we had late lunch and headed to Benchatikki park. The park seems, in theory, interesting, as it has large variety of habitats, but, many of them are fairly nature-like, allowing animals to hide very well. We did see a few northern tree shrews and Finlayson’s squirrels, but I would take Chatukak over Benchatikki any day. Before sundown we went to Lumphini again so that my wife could be properly “monitored” 🙂. During each visit, I found one turtle I was not able to ID: They both seemed a bit like a Trachemys, but not quite. After supposedly a famous mango sticky rice nearby, she went for a massage to Khao San and I did some spotlighting. Originally I wanted to go to Benchatikki, as pit vipers seem fairly common there, but I wanted to visit the centre at night as well and did not have  much time, so I stick to Lumphini. Obviously, not much can survive in such a monitor mayhem and the results showed for it. Khao San close to New Year’s Eve was total madness, so we had dinner and went to sleep.

Khao Yai

In the morning, we took a convenient direct bus to Don Mueang (even though it was very hard to convince the conductor to stop at our stop, which was not at the airport) and went to Drive Thailand rental, where our Nissan Navarra KC awaited us. Everything went smooth, the car was clean, in good condition, and rear wheel drive. I rented Navarra because of Kaeng Krachan’s upper campsite access, where in theory 4WD is necessary, but high clearance might suffice. We will see about that later.

I did not find driving in Thailand more demanding than driving in Europe.

We set off north to Wat Nong Si Da to see the resident colony of Lyle’s flying fox*. After that, we drove to Khao Yai. As we exited the highway, a dreadful sight was upon us: hundreds of cars were lining to enter the motorway, in a queue of maybe 10 km. All these people were spending their New Year’s holiday in the park, which must have been horrendous. Luckily, they were heading out as we were heading in.

Getting to the headquarters was painfully slow, but after that the park was fairly free and most of the trails we walked nearly alone. We saw a few troops of the northern pig-tailed macaque – those are fairly common around roads and even more so around human activity. We only arrived at the HQ at around 4 pm, so we booked a night drive, scanned the river for otters and walked trail No. 1 behind the river: We saw some nice birds, a first of many Finlayson’s squirells, and the first snake of the trip, which was making its way through the undergrowth. I took advantage of my new D500, which is able to focus in pretty much pitch black and actually made a photo, which is pitch black as well. The Great Wisdom of the Internet identified the cluster of scales I managed to capture as a king cobra, unfortunately one of few species I had seen before.

We also saw our first turtle: Oldham’s* and Giant Asian Pond Turtle* are seen all over the park, and Yellow-headed Temple Turtle is especially common around the campsite. We did not see any other species, though, fortunately including no sliders.  We were looking forward to the night drive, as the last time we visited for one night only, it delivered a close up viewing of a Paradoxorus musanga, one more civet and quite a lot of other species. Unfortunately, this time we drafted a foul card with our driver-guide duo: They did not speak any English, did not even react to “stop” and “go” and did not even stop for the animals unless told a few times. We were driving fairly fast and the whole thing just had a bitter atmosphere. We did see one civet at the HW, unfortunately Paradoxorus musanga, the only civet species I had seen before, and had a glimpse of another, but the car did not stop in time. Animals common on night drives are Golden jackal, red muntjac, Malayan porcupine and sambar. Actually, sambars are omnipresent even during the day, and well habituated, whilst, contrary to other reports, we only saw muntjacs at night – sightings are nearly guaranteed nearby the lodging at any moment after dark. Porcupines are very common around the lodging, HQ and probably everywhere else. After the drive, I spotlighted along the road leading in the forest behind the lodging area, but no luck.

The next morning we went to Pha Dieo viewpoint in search of serow. The walkway is, however, very popular with loud locals, which come and go all the time, so I cannot really imagine any serows coming up close. Birdwatching was nice, though, with notable appearance of multiple Silver pheasants*: Locals did see some of them, but seemed unfazed, so maybe they are common.  We stopped at the HQ and I tried to arrange another night drive in hopes of better tomorrow: More on that later. Except for turtles, a guided group stopped at one of the bushes at the riverbank: To my delight, an Indochinese water dragon* was resting in its branches. It was also at nearly the same spot the next day. The same cannot be said for the crested serpent eagle* sitting across the river. Across the road from the HQ, there is a dust road going behind the kitchen: at its very end, there are usually a lot of photographers going after some small birds eating seeds from the plants across the river. We saw our first Grey-bellied squirell* there. Another one we saw later at the campsite, but they do not seem to be as common as the Finlayson’s.

We spent midday around the Haew Suwat waterfall trail, hoping for some interesting reptiles, but we saw mostly butterflies and a few skinks. We had an aquarium when I was a kid, so Tiger Barbs were an interesting sighting for me, but it probably is not native (?).

We tried for serow again in the evening, but there were even more people and same amount of serows as in the morning, and birds seemed to be on a break. The trip was not in vain, though, as before dusk, a (probably) northern short-tailed gymnure* made appearance, quite a special sighting, and driving back after dark, we saw a Leopard cat* at the roadside: I did not manage to take a photo, as it quickly bolted to the forest, but still, a cat.

Speaking of driving after dark: There seems to be a set of rules in the park, and they mean exactly, or nearly, nothing. Thais drive roads before sunrise, after sunset and nobody seems to mind. On our previous visit, we walked all trails where a guide is required and even rangers we met with other groups were kind to us and did not mention that we were unguided. I do not think having a guide helps much on a trail, but having one with the car might mean he also has a radio and has access to up-to-date observations. Seeing an elephant on a tour might be easy, whilst is purely luck based if you are on your own. The same goes for any static animals. As I found out later in Kaeng Krachan, one of these days, a binturong (my no.1 target) was spotted 10 km from the northern gate, but why would you go there unless leaving the park, or, having somebody tell you that there is a binturong there over radio.

I previously mentioned that I tried to arrange another night drive in the park: I told them our guide was bad and if they can give me another guide. I do not think I managed to convey that “bad” thing and it probably turned to “does not speak English”. Anyway, I tried to ask for a female guide, as I think that women need to work much harder in that kind of job (or any job, on that matter), whilst all a man need to do is to have a smoke with his friends who already does that. No woman was available, neither an English speaking guide, so I risked it and begged them to at least give me a decent “normal” guide. The car picked us up and our spotter was… a 13 years old boy. Yay! His mother was driving the car and apparently he wanted to help her with work. We already paid, so our “we do not support child labour” moment was way in the past. The boy did not surprise and did not find anything, but learned to react to my queries, and his mother was driving slowly and was really trying to find something. We did not see any uncommon species, but at least could observe jackals and associates in relaxed means: overall it was a better experience than the day before.  The next day we dedicated to the search of otters. In the morning, we went to the watchtower: the images of the animals resting on a brown dusty patch of bank on iNaturalist are all from the lake by the watchtower. Otters can probably be seen anywhere in the river, especially around the HQ, but that requires a lot of luck. We stayed at the watchtower till 8:30, but no otters showed up, so we hiked the trail no. 3. It was overcast, so birds were fairly active, with notable appearance of green-legged partridge*. At the trailhead, we found the famous tree with lesser false vampire bats roost. I was also told that there is a fruiting fig tree here, but I did not find any. On the way back, a lone white-handed gibbon was relaxedly travelling through the canopy, unfortunately mostly obscured by vegetation. We stayed at the watchtower for a while, with no luck again. We stopped at the HQ, as we always did, to unsuccessfully scout the river, and to take another obligatory look at the water dragon. At the foot of the hanging bridge at the HQ, there was a fruiting tree, which frequently had oriental pied hornbills (very common all over Thailand): One of the Thai photographers told me, that there is a similar tree at the campsite, where wreathed hornbills come every evening and morning: Our plan for the evening was made.

We went to the Haew Narok falls during midday – this trail was probably the most popular among visitors of all we hiked – and after lunch, we tried for otters again. We spent just one hour, but none showed up, so I parted with the prospect of seeing an otter and we headed to the campsite. Unfortunately, this was already Friday evening, so the campsite was bursting at the seams, and I suspect the wreathed hornbills were not brave enough to show up. Only oriental pied hornbills arrived, and except for many, many sambar, a few yellow-headed temple turtles and one grey-bellied squirell we had no luck. Another photographer swore that the hornbills come every morning at 6 am (sunrise was at 6:40).

After two bad experiences, we skipped a night drive and I went to the HQ to spotlight instead. Again, it was Friday, so the parking lot was rather busy till 10 pm, when the staff closed and sent me away. I saw only sambars and porcupines. My wife decided to neglect a slim hornbill chance, so I went to the campsite when it was still dark alone. No non-oriental-pied hornbills showed up, again, I blame the amount of people. When I returned to the lodge, I discovered my wife grossly overslept, almost as if someone was forcing her to sleep deprivation for a few previous days! We packed our things and headed to the HQ to return keys. I do not recall what our original plan was, but we decided only to walk the trail No. 1.
Gibbons were calling very close by at the beginning of the trail no. 7, but were obscured by vegetation. On the bridge, I saw a couple with a guide looking for something: The guy said that some kind of a large lizard was hunting fish in the water. Their guide was looking and suddenly pointed to the surface. I heard squeaking and realized what that meant: A second later we were looking at a smooth-coated otter*! Such a luck! It did not stay for long and swam off. Fortunately, I could say, as I only had a few dozens of images left on my SD card and, however nice camera a D500 is, it does not have a second SD slot for overflow. Luckily, I ran out when the animal was almost away, and got no nice images anyway.

We left Khao Yai later than we wished to, at around 11:30 and headed south.

Kaeng Krachan

I wanted to stay in Baan Maka, but for our single date it was booked well in advance. My second choice was Samarn Bird Camp, but I was not able to reach them, so we ended up in Kum Nangpaya. I hoped for a Bengal loris in Baan Maka, and of couse, a retic, but it was clear there is no chance for the former here: Premises are fairly small and it does not border forest, it is really more of a garden. The garden is at the lake bank, with a few nearby waterholes, so at least I hoped for some frog diversity. After dinner I went around, but I only found MANY Asian common toads and a few Microhyla sp.* More importantly, I stumbled upon a small-banded kukri snake*, the only (shame) decent snake observation of the trip.

The next morning, we went to the Bird’s hide (+66 92 378 2703). The hide only opens at 7:30 am, which feels quite late. It is also not so easy to find: Go to the Google maps pin, there is a left sign. Follow the sign and then follow all others, no matter how far they bring you from the original pin. You will reach a small parking lot at the edge of the forest, and the hide is some 30 m down the path. The entrance is 200 baht per person per day, capacity is maybe 10 people. The waterhole is fairly shaded by trees, so a full-frame camera would be advantageous to fight high ISO noise, provided you have at least 600 mm. My main aim in the hide was lesser oriental chevrotain*, and the first one made appearance maybe 2 minutes after we sat down. “Ok, we can go now,” I thought 🙂 . Grey-bellied and Himalayan striped squirrels* were common sightings, sometimes with up to 5 animals of one species in a view, we saw 4 or 5 chevrotains and at least three northern treeshrews. Of course, birdlife is nice, with Kajil pheasant* and a green woodpecker, lesser yellownape*, being the most notable for me, a non-birder, with red junglefowl being present at all times.

We had lunch and headed to Kaeng Krachan. I had hard time understanding the park. Should we drive the road? Should we walk the trails? Should we stay at the campsite and walk around? I did not manage to discover the answer to this question.

At the gate, upon request of camping in Phanoen Thung, we were immediately asked if the car was a 4WD. Our trick with a high clearance did not work. Even as we reached the Ban Krang reception later, they immediately told us „this car is not a 4×4!“. Anyway, you can take a taxi from the gate or Ban Krang to Phanoen Thung for 1500 baht, and for 2500 baht if the driver (and you) overnights. So, if you are budget conscious, the cheapest way would be to rent a sedan and hire the taxi. Our Navarra was only marginally more expensive than a sedan, though, maybe a bit less comfortable and of course, taking 10 liters per 100 km.

We drove to Ban Krang and rented a tent. En route, we met our only group of stumped tailed macaques. Some of the staff at Bang Krang was surprisingly unpolite compared to what Thais usually are like.
The restaurant in Ban Krang (and Phanoen Thung) closes at 5 pm, so you need to get a takeaway box, if you stay in the campsite and do not have your own food. After we got settled at around 3pm, I asked about the bear. Supposedly they come to the campsite, and sometimes the cook calls out. “Sun bear*!” the cook called in that instant. Just as we came, the bear nearly got smacked by a huge clouded monitor’s tail and ran off, luckily returning a few moments later and allowing for prolonged views, even though, among the concrete, iron and trash, not in the nicest environment. We ticked off our main target within first two hours in the park and for me, it was also the first wild bear I have seen. The bear scouted the trash and did not mind the small crowd gathered. A troop of dusky leaf monkeys were nearby – these are common in both camps and along the trails.

We walked the short Vanilla trail going east from the campsite, as Sapria ram was supposed to bloom at the end. Somebody forgot to tell Sapria, though!

After the walk, we returned to the park on road, meeting a black giant squirell, grey bellied squirell and a pair of white-handed gibbons. Grey-bellied squirrels are common throughout the park and gibbons are often found around both campsites. I have seen the white-handed gibbon on multiple places before, and also have not seen it on a few, and I would say that in Kaeng Krachan it is by far easiest to spot them. In the evening, we drove to the waterhole at km 11 and waited there, but no wildlife showed up, so after nearly an hour, we checked the other waterholes till km 9 and returned to the campsite.

Apart from our observations, a black leopard was sighted, videoed, and photographed on this day, and another leopard was sighted at km 14.  I asked around
if we should drive the road or stay at the waterholes, and the consensus seemed to be to drive. I think waterholes are better later in the year, when it is drier and warmer.

When eating our packed dinner from the canteen, another bear made appearance, later surprising my wife in the bathroom. I spotlighted around the campsite, meeting a few locals going up, saying that one of the guys was a professional “hunting” (?) a “tiger” (?), but before they went up, the guy showed me a tree which has flying squirrels, “but not today.” Frustratingly, I only discovered a few well hidden langurs with the thermal scope, sleeping in the canopy, but no other vertebrates except for geckoes and few frogs.

The next morning we drove the road, focusing on the area around the waterholes at km 9-11. We did not see any mammals except for the omnipresent grey-bellied squirrels, but did catch a few interesting birds, mostly stopping where the birders had stopped and asking them. After breakfast we walked the trail going west from the campsite, following the river, but did not see any interesting vertebrates save for leaf monkeys. I shortly looked into bamboo for bats on the way back, mostly finding wasp nests.

At 1 pm, our taxi arrived and we set off to the upper campsite. I managed to arrange that the driver drops us off at km 22, where Sapria ram actually bloomed.

I had three main targets in the upper elevation: yellow-throated marten, Robinson’s banded langur and Fea’s muntjac.

Upon our arrival another sun bear came behind the kitchen. We walked around the campsite, to the viewpoint and then followed the road downward, finding our only Pallas’s squirell, before returning at dusk.

Another bear was behind the kitchen when it got dark. After dinner, I met a young Englishman named Connor, who spotlighted around, and we joined forces. Immediately, Connor
found a magnificent Attacus atlas. In the next hour or more, we only found one cricket and one cicada (of which you can see scores around the campsite), though. When returning to the campsite, a fresh warm muntjac droppings awaited us. A local who saw it said it was maybe two minutes ago, but we were not able to find the animal. Two minutes…

I went behind the kitchen again, and a few moments later saw a distinct weasel shape on my thermal. There were two or possibly three animals. We played hide and seek for a while, while the suspected martens definitely were winning over the team of me and my thermal. After one hour, I gave up and went away, luckily tried again after a minute or two: They were out in the open and luckily not scared of light this time (I had a red flashlight with me as well, but totally forgot about it). When I saw the first animal, it was so large that I thought it was a civet, but soon I confirmed that those were indeed yellow-throated martens*. They stayed for a minute or two – just like I forgot about having a red light, I also forgot about flash remote control, so I did not take any decent pictures – and then I finally went to sleep. Porcupines supposedly visit the kitchen every day about one hour after sunset.

The next morning I woke up when it was still dark. Two martens were behind the kitchen again, but bolted once they saw me and later we saw them, or some other, crossing the road. We wanted to walk towards the sea of clouds, but it was closed, so we inadvertently only walked to the second viewpoint. We went to the closed road after anyway, but in the first 2 km or so we did not find anything except for a few birds. After breakfast and some more bear viewing, we walked the Orchid Trail, obviously seeing no orchids in January and finding one more provocative pile of muntjac droppings. My wife then returned to the campsite and I walked the road towards Ban Krang, asking to be picked up on the way. I was lucky, as maybe just one hundred meters after the Orchid Trail trailhead, two adult and one infant Robinson’s banded langur* were sitting in a tree.

On the way down, we picked up two birdwatchers, who told us that the previous night, two (probably) civets put on quite a show between 11 pm and 2 am in Ban Krang, being loud and climbing around. Not the best pick to stay in the other campsite on that night… They (the birders, not the civets) were also surprised we had not seen a great hornbill yet, saying the birds come to the campsite in the morning, which was later confirmed by Ban Krang staff.

I was still missing the most important turtle target: The Asian giant forest tortoise. One of the caretakers in Ban Krang had a clear opinion on where to find: “Stream 2!” and the morning arrival of giant hornbills was confirmed as well. Dry season is not a very good period to see the tortoise, but still we ventured to the trail at the second ford. No luck, though. In the evening we drove the road, focusing on km 8-11, walking around each waterhole, but nothing again. There were two Pyrops candelaria specimens in the campsite. Pyrops
is a special genus for me, as because of Pyrops ruehli (and my father, who is a sort of amateur enthomologist and said “this is not a moth”) I discovered iNaturalist two years ago, which really set me onwards more in-depth wildlife watching path and made my outings way more enjoyable.

Our last night in Thailand was upon us, so I decided to change tactics a bit: I walked for about 40 minutes, without success again, went to sleep earlier and set my alarm in the middle of the night. I was marginally more successful: For some 20 30 minutes nothing, but then I found a sambar under a fruiting fig tree, a Malayan porcupine behind the kitchen and another sambar by the campsite entrance. I could have had a very interesting observation, as I walked upon an unidentified carnivore over a road crest: Probably a  civet or a badger, but I did not see it well and it disappeared quickly. A shame: Maybe if I had used a red light, it could have gone differently. Unfortunately, except for this one, I did not see any new mammal or reptile species that night as well.

The last morning I hesitantly woke up when it was still dark and went to the river bank across the fruiting fig tree. Two great hornbills* arrived shortly, which made up for the early wake up. The tree soon turned into a fountain of biodiversity, with many bird species and a lot of grey-bellied squirrels moving all over. Even before sunrise, the leaf monkeys moved in, which made the great hornbills uncomfortable, and they eventually left. Another one arrived later and stayed till around
7:15.

We gave the waterholes yet another chance, but this time we wanted to enjoy the drive, so we followed the birders and threw ideas of mammalian sighting away. After breakfast, we tried for the tortoise again: en route, we met three birders looking at a very, very well hidden white-fronted scops owl*. On the trail, we found great slaty woodpecker*, but no non-avian reptiles. I was actually wondering about that all the time: Where did all the lizards go? During our time in Thailand, we did not even see any Calotes, Draco or Acanthosaura sp. except for Calotes emma in Krung Ching. I blame the cold weather and if that is the truth, I definitely know not to go to the monsoon tropics in the middle of winter. I very much cherish my visit to Nam Cat Tien in Vietnam in March: The forest was incredibly alive with small animals, even much more than, say, Gunung Leuser. I wonder if Thai forests look the same in March (or October, which is wetter).

While my wife repacked her things before leaving, I checked the bamboo again and finally found three Hardwicke‘s wooly bats*.

It was already nearly midday, so we checked all the waterholes, hoping to find a basking retic: I did stumble upon a small thin snake, but did not get a good look at it. The drive to DMK was uneventful and in the evening we flew to the Philippines for the diving part of our trip: We did not see any mammals there, but a handful of cephalopod species, loads of nudibranches and a lot of crustaceans, some of which I would not even imagine existed. 🙂

Here is a list of targets to see how we did:

Mammals

Other mammal species seen:

Rodents: Sundasciurus sp., Rattus sp., Black giant squirell, Finlayson’s squirell, Himalayan striped squirell, Pallas’s squirell, Malayan porcupine,

Primates: Stump-tailed macaque, Northern pig-tailed macaque, Dusky leaf monkey, White-handed gibbon,

Ungulates: Sambar, Red muntjac,

Bats: Cynopterus sp., Lesse false vampire bats, Hardwicke’s wooly bats

Other: Asian elephant (only heard), Golden jackal

27 mammal species in total

 Reptiles

All our observations can be found at my iNaturalist account. As of the date of publishing of this report, there are only observations I needed ID help with to publish this report as  correctly as possible, but I will add the rest when I will have finished processing the images.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2024-12-24&d2=2025-01-08&user_id=asanoth&verifiable=any