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I just got back from a great vacation to Thailand, spending most of the time visiting my wife's family. Had a great time. One of the highlights was my wife and I spending a few days at Khao Yai National Park, in the central northeast part of the country. Khao Yai is the oldest and largest national park in the country, and as of four years ago, also was granted World Heritage Site status, which is only granted to a very few natural places in the world. It is an absolutely beautiful place, consisting mostly of mountainous tropical rainforest. I have been to very few places in my life where I have seen so much wildlife, and with such variety, in such a short period of time.

Please feel free to help with the identification of some of the animals.

Enjoy................Andrew

Front entrance, on the north side of the park.

During one of my hikes in the jungle. Notice the high socks used to keep leeches out of your pants!

Georgeous and typical jungle scenery


Unknown bird of prey - I guessed a Shikra, but I'm not a raptor expert.


Sambar Deer - saw many of these grazing through the open fields in the park








Another large bull, that had a nice rest right by our lodge.


Saw a lot of evidence of wild Asian Elephants on the trails. At one point, I could actually smell the animals. My guide told me they could be within 5 meters and be totally hidden.






Unidentified - anyone got any ideas?




Yes, these signs are for real:


This was a first for me - a live Cobra in broad daylight. It was fast, as we saw it on the road. By the time I got my camera out the window, it was already hauling a** into the bushes. Best guess, after showing the picture to my guide and some local park officials - Monocled or Black Spitting Cobra. It did rear up and display for a brief second before turning and running.


Oriental Whip Snake - seen by the side of the road, also in broad daylight. It slowly worked its way through the bushes as I was able to snap many photos.




Another unusual daytime sighting - this guy was also seen crossing the road:




Green Cat-Eye Snake (boiga cyanea) seen at night, while road hunting. Thanks Brian Fischer for the ID.














This crocodile is an anomoly in the park, and is actually not supposed to be occurring there. I could not identify it, but guessed the Siamese Crocodile, although they are extremely rare in the wild now.






These are Pig Tailed Macaques and are quite common in the park. Some are aggressive, as I found out while getting a little too close to a mom and her baby. The male rushed out from the bushes as I was photgraphing the female and came within 1 meter of me with mouth open and growling. I retreated very quickly and damn near wet myself. My wife was safely in the car, in awe at the whole scene.









Another unidentified lizard - this one, sunning itself right on the yellow stripe. After this shot, I scared the little bugger away, before the next car came to make a pancake out of it.




And the highlight of the trip - seeing my first wild Asian Elephant. This one was seen at night, right on the road while spotlighting. Our guide kept a very safe distance, as he told us about a tourist getting their car destroyed only a couple months ago by shining bright lights in an elephant's eyes. I was not allowed to use flash photography, so I used the night vision function on my video camera.


This is a Muntjac, locally referred to as a Barking Deer






Seen, but not photographed included: Indian Civet, Slow Loris, White Handed Gibbon, about a million Leaf Nosed Bats, Great Hornbills, and many other beautiful birds. The park was an incredible display of biodiversity.