Untamed Land

Untamed Land
Untamed Land

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Another Look at Khao Sok

Although I have done a blog post or two about Khao Sok NP in Thailand, I have many more decent photos that either I have not posted, or I have more to write about them.
 There is a large, magnificent lake in the park. The water in the lake is very warm, more like a hot tub, than a heated swimming pool.
Last post showed photos of Long-tailed Macaques taken from across the river. These monkeys are not at all shy and boldly cross the river hoping for a handout from the gawking tourists.
This little guy came up and grabbed a green grasshopper off of my pants leg, and casually ate it. Better than a banana.
Macaques are not the only primates in Khao Sok. One of the cutest species of monkey that I have seen anywhere is the Dusky Langur.
I hiked up the main trail in the park from the headquarters up to a small ranger station/snack bar. There were picnic tables set up, and I sat down to rest from the heat and exertion of climbing up the hill. This cute guy came out of the forest and started acting like a typical monkey.
It scampered up and down the tree trunks, then flung itself spread eagle onto the ground. Then it sat at the picnic table in imitation of a human. I was laughing too hard to take any photos of all this. Then it melted back into the forest.

From the small tourist town of Khao Sok, and throughout the forest, one can hear the mournful wails of White-handed Gibbons. They stay high in the tree canopy, and I have not been able to get passable photos of them. This photo was taken by Sean Crane and used by permission. His great website can be found here.
One of the most spectacular species of birds in the park are the, Great Hornbills. You have to see them in life to truly appreciate them.
Spiderhunters are a unique family of birds that I believe are related to sunbirds. I have only seen them in Khao Sok. I saw both, Spectacled Spiderhunters and this Little Spiderhunter, visiting a flowering banana plant.

There are several species of squirrel, some are huge, some are red, some are black, and some of them are probably Treeshrews which superficially look like small squirrels, (I saw them in Northern Thailand). I also saw things that looked like chipmunks to me.
This toad somehow made it up into my bungalow, ten feet off the ground. My guess is that it climbed up the steep, shower drain pipe. I could easily imagine a cobra doing the same thing, pleasant dreams at night for me. I heard things scurrying around both inside and outside my bungalow all night long.
For the most part, turtles are critically endangered throughout asia because they are relished as both food and traditional folk remedies by the local people. I was very happy to see this turtle in the river. I do not know what species it is.
If you know anything about me, you know that I love the reptiles, and Khao Sok is full of them. One of the most common is this lizard that goes by several names, Horned Mountain Dragon, Forest Crested Lizard etc. I want to show more photos of reptiles and things but this post is long enough.

5 comments:

Marc Calvo said...

One of the most interesting,primate that i fill of south east asia, is the "siamang",is the biggest of all the gibbons,and his curious gular sack allows him to make an illarious and funny laughing songs!.

Spiral Ginger said...

you shot some awesome shots. You are really great photographer. How can you do this?

john said...

Thanks for your comments Marc and Spiral Ginger. Most of these photos are scans of the original slides that I used on my first trip to Thailand. I do admit to using photoshop to try to improve my flawed photos.

Gustav said...

Khao sok of Thailand is very beautiful place. And you are great wild photographer. You took some very wonderful and rare photographs. We are lucky that you share the nice and beautiful photograph. Thanks.

Trees Planet said...

Wow! This is great. You took some great pictures. You may work hard for these pictures. Great job.