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I have visited India four times. In June 1997 I spent a couple of weeks in Bandhavgarh, Kanha and Corbett National Parks. In February 2007 I spent a week in Gujurat, plus two days around Agra looking for River Dolphins (see the 2007 Trip Report). In December 2008 I spent a few days in Assam (see the 2008 Trip Report). And in October 2011 I spent 2 weeks in the south (after a day in Mumbai) (see the 2011 Trip Report). I was back in 2012 for work in Delhi but squeezed in a day trip to Agra to seem some bats (see below). Assam (2008) Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, 1 night in December 2008. Hoolock Gibbon, Capped Langur, Rhesus Macaque, Pig-tailed Macaque, Elephant, Malayan Giant Squirrel, Pallas's Squirrel and Common Palm Civet. Kaziranga National Park, 2 nights in December 2008. Gangetic River Dolphin, Hog Deer, Swamp Deer, Wild Water Buffalo, Common Palm Civet, Elephant, Rhesus Macaque, Indian Flying Fox, Indian Rhino, Hoary-bellied Squirrel, Wild Boar, Smooth-coated Otter, Dawn Bat. Manas National Park, 1 night in December 2008. Wild Boar, Capped Langur, Hoary-bellied Squirrel, Dhole, Sambar, Barking Deer, Hog Deer, Indian Hare and Gaur. Pygmy Hogs are quite possible here, but only after the grass has been burnt. It was unusual that I missed an Indian Porcupine. Gujurat (2007) Gir National Park, 1 night in February 2007. Chowsingha, Lion, Leopard, Southern Plains Grey Langur, Jackal, Chinkara, Chital, Sambar and Nilgai. Great Rann of Kutch, 2 nights in February 2007, in the fabulous CEDO camp. Indian Hare, Indian Gerbil, Little Indian Field Mouse, Indian Bush Rat, Lesser Bandicoot Rat, Indian Hedgehog, Greater Mouse-tailed Bat, Jungle Cat, Chinkara, Nilgai, House Mouse, Sand-coloured Rat, Indian Desert Jird, Grey Mongoose, Indian Fox, Indian Jackal and an Asiatic (Desert) Wildcat. Little Rann of Kutch, 2 nights in February 2007. Abundant Wild Ass and Nilgai. Wild Boar, Jackals, Hares and small mammals generally seem quite common (the only two species definitely IDd though were Indian Gerbil and House Shrews). Also saw a Jungle Cat. Velavadar, 1 night in February 2007. Striped Hyena, which are apparently easy to see here, as are Wolves. Nilgai, Jungle Cat, Wild Boar, Grey Mongoose.
Karnataka (2011) Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary (1 afernoon, Oct 11). Sloth Bears and a Three-lined Palm Squirrel. Kerala (2011) I spent 10 days in Kerala in October 2011. Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, 1 night in October 2011. Chital, Sambar, Indian Muntjac, Tufted Grey Langur, Bonnet Macaque, Gaur, Black-naped Hare, Sambar, Rat sp, Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Jungle Striped Squirrel, Wild Boar. Eravikulam National Park, 3 hours in October 2011. Nilgiri Tahrs are extremely easy to see. There are Bonnet Macaques here too. Pampadum Shola National Park, 2 nights in October 2011. I didn't see a Nilgiri Marten here, but did see plenty of Malabar (Indian) Giant Squirrels, Nilgiri Langurs and Bonnet Macaques as well as a Brown Palm Civet, Sambar and Gaurs during a spotlighting drive. I caught Hill, Day's and House Shrews as well as a House Mouse and Rattus rattus around the hotel. Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, 2 nights in October 2011. A beautiful park with a fabulously quiet Tree Top Cabin to sleep in. Sambar, Chital, Nilgiri Langurs, Grey Langur (tufted?) (4 kms down the road in Anamalai), Bonnet Macaques, Gaur, Wild Boar, Jungle Striped Squirrel, Dusky Striped Squirrel, Malabar Giant Squirrel, Indian Giant Flying Squirrels, Black-naped Hare, Indian Mouse Deer, Muntjac, Leopard, and Rufous Horseshoe Bats. Thatekkad Bird Sanctuary, 1 night in October 2011, is a very small park but supposedly one of the better places for Travancore Flying Squirrels. We heard several but couldn't see any. Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary, 1 night in October 2011. Just a short stop over at Wayanad where I saw an Indian Giant Flying Squirrel with the target Black-footed Grey Langurs at Tholpetty.
Madhya Pradesh (1997) I enjoyed the couple of weeks I spent in Madhya Pradesh in June 1997. The park authorities are quite – no, make that, painfully – bureaucratic and spotlighting is not allowed in most parks. That said, the guys in Bandhavgarh could easily be persuaded to take a vehicle out around the outside of the park with a spotlight which was fairly productive. Seeing a Tiger in the wild is of course a highlight. But the parks I visited were very focused on Tiger watching. And it took me a long time to persuade the guides that much as I loved seeing Tigers, I was also interested in seeing other things, and that we didn’t need to spend all of every game drive staking out the big cats. Kanha National Park, 3 nights June 1997 - Golden Jackal, TIger, Indian Flying Fox, Northern Plains Grey Langur, Rhesus Macaque, Wild Boar, Indian Muntjac, Sambar, Swamp Deer (the hard-ground subspecies), Chital, Blackbuck, Gaur.
Maharashtra (2011) Mumbai, 1 day 2011. I spent the morning in Elephanta Caves, where there were plenty of Bonnet Macaques on the island, as well as two groups of Asiatic Greater Yellow House Bats, a colony of Fulvus and Schneider's Leaf-nosed Bats and a small group of Greater False-Vampire Bats in the caves. In the afternoon I visited Kanheri Caves in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. I could only find a couple of Tomb Bats (probably Taphozous melanopogon), as well as many Bonnet Macaques, a few Rhesus Macaques, a Southern Plains Grey Langur and a striped squirrel (probably Jungle Striped Squirrel Funambulus tristriatus). In Mumbai itself there were plenty of Indian Flying Foxes. The medium sized Fruit Bats feeding in trees near the Homian Circle Gardens must have been Fulvous Fruit bats Rousettus leschenaulti.
Rajasthan (2007) Bharatpur, 1 night 2007. A fruitless hunt for a Fishing Cat took me to Bharatpur (Keoladeo Ghana National Park). But I did see a Grey Mongoose, Indian Hare, Jackal, Chital, Sambar, Nilgai and a Great Asian Yellow House Bat (Scotophilus heathii) at the hotel.
Tamil Nadu (2011) Valparai, 2 nights in October 2011. Lion Tailed Macaques, Nilgiri Langurs, Bonnet Macaques, Malabar Giant Squirrel, Jungle Striped Squirrel, Wild Boar, Indian Elephant, Gaur, Sambar, Black-naped Hare, Grey and Ruddy Mongooses and we caught Cooke's Mice and Black Rats.
Uttaranchal (1997) Corbett National Park, 3 nights in June 1997 – Indian Hare (red-tailed race Ruficaudatus), probable Indian Field Mouse, Jungle Cat, Tiger (1 briefly), Asiatic Black Bear (mother with cubs - very lucky to see this species, rather unusual in summer), Tarai Grey Langur (a recent split and I guess this is the species here), Rhesus Macaque, Wild Boar, Indian Muntjac, Sambar, Chital, Hog Deer, Goral (distant views after a long drive), Asian Elephant, Northern Palm Squirrel.
Uttar Pradesh (2007 and 2012) Agra, 1 day in October 2012. I visited the Agra Fort specifically to see Naked-rumped Tomb Bats as well as Lesser Mouse-tailed Bats. The former were easy to see in the ground level rooms on the Taj side of the fort. The latter reputedly common in underground rooms now closed to the public, though I found a lone animal in a room near the well on the ground floor. Plus Northern Palm Squirrels and Rhesus Macaques.
Chambal National Park, 1 night in February 2007 (at the Chambal Safari Camp). Gangetic River Dolphins, Common Palm Civet, Indian Fox, Rhesus Macaque (in Agra), Indian Flying Fox and Five-striped Palm Squirrel.
My More Detailed Trip Reports Assam (2008): 4 days and 21 species including Hoolock Gibbons, Capped Langurs, Wild Water Buffalo and Gangetic River Dolphins. Gujurat (2007): 9 days and 36 species including Wild Ass, Asian Lions and a Striped Hyena. See Also Seven species of cat found in one Assam forest, Feb 2010. Other People's Trip Reports India, 2012: Juan Luis Ortega Arranz, 3 weeks & 31 species including Snow Leopard, Asiatic Lion, Striped Hyena and Tigers. Manas, 2011: Uffe Gjøl Sørensen, 1 week & 19 species including Golden Langurs and a Tiger. Ladakh, Chambal and Corbett, 2011: Niels Poul Dreyer, 3 weeks & 23 species including Tigers, River Dolphins but no Snow Leopard. North Central India, 2010-11: Uffe Gjøl Sørensen, 1 month & 30 species including a Tiger. Gujurat, Madhya Paresh & Assam, 2010-11: Coke Smith, 3 weeks & 50 species including Striped Hyena, Sloth Bear, Capped Langurs and Hoolock Gibbons. Fabulous photos as usual. India, 2010: Bob Berghaier, 2 weeks & 33 species including 9 Tigers, Hoolock Gibbons, Capped Langurs and a White-tailed Wood Rat. Ladakh, 2010: Ulrik Andersen, 2 weeks & 8 species including Snow Leopard, Blue Sheep and Ladakh Urial. Great report. Uttar Pradesh, 2010: Michal Polanski, 1 week & 12 species including Gangetic Dolphins. India, 2010: Curtis Hart, 3 weeks and 22 species including Tigers, Nilgiri Tahrs and River Dolphins. Corbett and the Himalayan foothills, 2010: Derek Shingles, 10 days and several mammals including a Tiger. India (Sultanpur, Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Agra, Chambal, Bharatpur), 2009: Sjef Ollers, 2 weeks & 28 species including Tigers and some nice bats. Tamil Nadu, 2009: Curtis Hart, 1 week, with 14 mammals including Lion-tailed Macaques and Dholes. North East India, 2009: Henk Hendiks, 3 weeks and 18 mammals including Western Hoolock Gibbons and Blue Sheep (mainly a birding report). See here for an article from Birding2Asia about the Western Hoolocks and here for some downloadable files of their calls. Ladakh, 2009: Szabolcs Kokay, 2 weeks and a Snow Leopard (open the link then choose 'Travel Reports', 'Ladakh 2009'). Bandhavgarh, 2008: Ian Loyd, 8 days & 16 species including 5 Tigers. Gujurat, 2008: Richard Webb, 1 week and 25 mammals including Asiatic Wild Ass, Striped Hyena and an Asiatic (Desert) Wildcat. Ladakh, 2008: Phil Telfer, 2 weeks and only a few mammals ...but one of them was a Snow Leopard! India (North, Central and Western), 2007: Steve Anyon-Smith, 1 month and 36 mammals including Wild Ass, Sloth Bear, Wolf and many Tigers. South India & Gujurat, 2007: Uffe Gjøl Sørensen, 1 month & 41 species including many of the southern endemics and a Long-eared Hedgehog. India, 2007: Birding2Asia, 1 month & 22 species. Ladakh, 2006: Alain Guillemont, 10 days & 8 species including a Snow Leopard, Urial and Argali. Western India, 2005: Uffe Gjøl Sørensen, 3 weeks & 26 species including Asiatic Lions and a Honey Badger. India, Gujurat 2004: Mike Prince, 1 week and some nice mammals including Wild Ass, Asiatic Lion and Striped Hyena. India, Southern 2002: Susan Myers, 2 weeks and 14 species. India (Northwest and Northeast), 2001: Don Roberson, 1 month and 27 mammals. India (Kanha), 2000: Richard Webb, 1 week and 18 species. |
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