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The Orient. Home to Tigers and Tapirs, Gibbons and gastro. And where the restaurants, the road rules and the massage parlours are full of surprises.

Information - sometimes detailed, sometimes less so - on mammal watching in many Asian countries can be found in the pages linked to the right.

Resources - books
South East Asia
Brenard, H., and Brooke, M. (eds). 1994. Insight Guides: South East Asia Wildlife. Appa Publications, Hong Kong. Not much use as a field guide, but some good information on national parks in Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines along with species you might see in each.

Francis, Charles M. 2001. A Photographic Guide to the Mammals of South East Asia. This is a pocket guide which covers most, but not all, of the larger mammals and a few of the smaller ones. Its quite useful though Francis's 2008 Field Guide is much better. However, this is the only book I could find that deals with Java and Sumatra.

Francis, Charles M. 2008. A Field Guide to the Mammals of South East Asia. This is just a fabulous field guide and long overdue. The illustrations are brilliant, particularly for the bats. Indispensable for any trips to Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Unfortunately it does not cover Java and Sumatra, though his other (smaller) book does.

Bhutan
Wangchuk, T. 2004. A Field Guide to the Mammals of Bhutan. Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture, Bhutan. The field guide covers all the Bhutanese species, though doesn't have information or illustrations for all the bats or rodents. There is also information on which species occur in which parks. If the book is to be believed then no mammals in Bhutan are endangered...

Borneo
Payne, J. and Francis, C. 1998. A Field Guide to the Mammals of Borneo. The Sabah Society, Kota Kinabalu. Indispensable if you are visiting Borneo, this covers all the mammals known from there. Quite easy to pick up in Borneo (and probably cheaper there too).

India & Indian Subcontinent
Gurung, K. and Singh, R. 1996. Field Guide to the Mammals of the Indian Subcontinent. Academic Press, London. This field guide to 100 or so of the larger mammals of India (and neighbouring countries) includes plates and brief notes on species as well as a useful guide to 23 national parks.

Israel, S. and Sinclair, T. (eds). 1992. Insight Guides: Indian Wildlife. Appa Publications, Hong Kong. Not much use as a field guide, but some good information on national parks in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and species you might see in each.

Memon, V. 2003. A Field Guide to Indian Mammals. Dorling Kindersley, Delhi. This is by far the best field guide I have seen for Indian mammals. Every species is covered (though for some of the smaller species there is just a sentence or two on their range and distinguishing features), but many small mammals are included.

Prater, S. 1971. The Book of Indian Animals. Oxford University Press. This covers 140 of the commoner or more readily observed mammal species of the region. Well researched and nicely illustrated, if slightly dated.

Sterndale, R. A. 1884. Natural History of the Mammalia of Indian and Ceylon. Thacker, Spink and Co. This freely downloadable e-book is interesting.

A useful and comprehensive study of the status of South Asia's bats is in this 2002 report.

Pakistan
Roberts, T.J. 2005. Field Guide to the Large & Medium-Sized Mammals of Pakistan. Oxford University Press. This seems like a reasonable book and I haven't seen anything better for Pakistan.

Roberts, T.J. 2005. Field Guide to the Small Mammals of Pakistan. Oxford University Press. Same comments as for the sister volume - this seems like a reasonable book and I haven't seen anything better for Pakistan.

Sri Lanka
Wijeyeratne, G.D.S. 2008. A Photographic Guide To Mammals of Sri Lanka. New Holland. Small and uptodate with comprehensive information and pictures on most of the mammals. Unfortunately it does not cover the majority of the smaller mammals. It also includes sites to see each species but I cannot vouch for how good these are.

Thailand
Lekagul, B. and McNeely, J. 1988. Mammals of Thailand. Darsnutha Press. Hard to get hold of outside Thailand, but available at the bigger bookshops in Bangkok this encyclopedia covers all the Thai mammals and is useful if you are interested in the smaller mammals in particular (other field guides cover the larger stuff, but even the squirrels in Thailand can be a challenge, given many have several - often quite different looking - subspecies). However, the 2008 Field Guide to the Mammals of South-East Asia (see above) is better and more up to date.

resources - Websites
Hong Kong
A useful account of bats in Hong Kong from the Hong Kong Government.

The Philippines
The Field Museum's checklist of the Mammals of the Philippines.

Thailand
Rattapon Kaichid's website for his tour company has some good mammal information and photos.