India -The Western Ghats 2011 – Jon Hall

The Western Ghats

I'd been to the centre, west and east of India but never to the south, which has a set of nice

endemic species including Lion-tailed Macaques and Nilgiri Tahrs. So the Western Ghats was an

obvious choice of destination when I was planning how to spend my 3 months long service leave

at the end of 2011 (long service leave is one of the Australian public service's finest

contributions to modern civilization).

I organised this trip, again, with with Anil at North West Safaris, who had arranged my 2007 trip

through Gujurat and 2008 trip in Assam. As always Anil did a great job choosing the best

itinerary, finding wildlife-friendly places to say and in particular using his network to arrange for

Sasi to accompany me (see the Kerala intro below). Ramesh Nair from Explore helped with the

local bookings too.

This was my favourite trip to India to date. Kerala is beautiful and while the towns are still

chaotically Indian, its a little bit less frenetic than other parts of the country. The food was

spectacular and, compared to the other places I have visited here, the parks were more relaxed

and better set up for a naturalist wanting to look for things other than just Tigers and Elephants

(though I am sure Sasi's presence helped with this too).

Mumbai

Mumbai is probably not the best gateway to Kerala, but I wanted to visit two sets of caves -

Elephanta and Kanheri - that are close to the city. These caves are well know tourist sites (they

both comprise a set of temples) but are also known roosts for several species of bats I wanted to

see. Vivek Menon's Field Guide to Indian Mammals recommends Elephanta Caves as the easiest

place to see both Schneider's and Fulvous Leaf-nosed Bats, and Kanheri as the best place for

Fulvous Fruit Bats and Greater False Vampires.

Elephanta Caves are a world heritage site and tourist boats start chugging out there each morning

at 9am from in front of the Gate of India. It ought to take about an hour to get there though it

took us 90 minutes on the way out, mainly because the skipper couldn't steer in a straight line.

There are at least 5 caves on the island, all next to each other along the main path through the

heritage site. The first cave has the most tourist activity. I saw two clusters of Asiatic Greater

Yellow House Bats in here, both in sink holes in the roof.

Asiatic Greater Yellow House Bats

There was also a mixed colony of both Schneider's and my first Fulvous Roundleaf Bats above

the main statue at the back of the cave (I managed to miss these first time I entered the cave

somehow. And it was difficult to work out that there were in fact two separate species other than

from examining the nose leaves in the photos: speoris has 3 supplementary leaflets, fulvus has

none). They were a bit too high up for decent photographs plus there was a perpetual queue of

tourists wanting to be photographed in front of the statue too which limited photographic time.

Schneider's Roundleaf Bat

Fulvous Leaf-nosed Bat

I couldn't find any bats in the smaller Nos 2, 3 and 4 caves, but in the 5th cave, in a low small

chamber on the left hand side as you enter, were a group of my first Greater False Vampire

Bats. A great species.

Greater False Vampire

I didn't explore the rest of the island. Indeed I am not sure its easy or even permitted to explore it

and everything is pretty much set up around the 5 caves. Bonnet Macaques are very common

and hang around the caves looking for handouts and causing trouble.

Bonnet Macaque

I headed back to Mumbai on the first boat at 12.30 (two hours or so on the island is just about

enough time to look in all the caves reasonably well).

Kanheri Caves

The journey back was quicker (and straighter) and we drove straight to the Sanjay Gandhi

National Park, an hour or so away. This is part national park, part safari park and also home to

the Kanheri Caves. It was particularly hot and humid around the caves. And when I discovered

there are 109 caves I decided to take a local guide who claimed to have seen bats in a few of the

caves and knew which ones. So we wandered from cave to cave, probably visiting about half of

them. Most of the 'caves' are small chambers cut into the cliff face and very similar in size and

layout.

Cave No. 1 stank of bats but I couldn't see or hear any. I'm not sure if it is a night roost, or a

seasonal thing or that there were in fact bats in the upper chamber which I couldn't see into. The

upper chamber is about 10 metres above the cave floor. Now I could have climbed a makeshift

ladder to have a look. It had been left there by the locals, and was just two pieces of bamboo

lashed together with various twigs sticking off that served as rungs. After several near death

moments in Asian bat caves I decided not to risk climbing up and then immediately regretted

how unadventurous I had become. I consoled myself with the thought that Fulvous Fruit Bats

were using the cave from time to time but I would have heard them if they had been in there.

Black-throated Tomb Bat

In Cave No. 3 - which is more of a temple - there were a few very flighty Tomb Bats above the

corridor around the perimeter. I saw at least one Black-throated Tomb Bats Taphozous

melanopogon (which have been recorded here before according to this very useful report on the

status of all South Asia's bats) but they may possibly have also been some T. longimanus but I

couldn't get a good look or photo at all of them.

I didn't see sigh nor sound of bats in any of the other 40 or so caves I wandered around. So

Kanheri was a little disappointing and perhaps there are more animals there at different times of

the year. A guide I was chatting too at Elephanta said there were lots of bats in Kanheri, so many

in fact she'd been scared when she visited, so it might be worth visiting at a different time of

year.

In the forest around the caves we saw many Bonnet Macaques, a few Rhesus Macaques, a

Southern Plains Grey Langur and a brief flash of a striped squirrel that I think was a Jungle-

Striped Squirrel (Funambulus tristriatus).

Back in Mumbai I saw a roost of Indian Flying Foxes and many more flying around the city at

dusk. Some smaller Fruit Bats were feeding near Homian Circle Gardens. I saw them flying from

the trees while we were stuck in traffic so didn't get a good look but they were smaller than

Flying Foxes but too big to be anything but Fulvous Fruit Bats (Leschenault's Rousette) I

believe.

Indian Flying Fox

Kerala

Its a 2 hour flight from Mumbai to Kochi and the landscape coming into land is as lush as

anything I've seen. I was met at the airport by a driver and Sasindra Babu, a conservation

campaigner who had taken leave from his job in the Kerala Forest and Wildlife Department to

join me after Anil had contacted him. Sasi coordinates eco tourism and development activity in

the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve and has campaigned to involve the local community in

conservation and ensure they see some rewards. It appears to have worked. If you would like to

visit Kerala you could contact Sasi to see if he could help. He's a great guide, fixer and

companion.

Thatekkad Bird Sanctuary

Two hours later we were at the pleasant Soma Bird Lagoon Hotel near the Thatekkad Bird

Sanctuary. The hotel was nice but the area was quite disturbed: the small sanctuary was set up

primarily to protect Ceylon Frogmouths.

We headed to the sanctuary for a late afternoon/night walk, all of which required special

permission of course, in true Indian style. Sasi got the permission but by the time a local guide

had arrived it was dark. We decided to focus on looking for Travancore Flying Squirrels which

are apparently not so easy to find in the Western Ghats but were quite common in Thatekkad.

We didn't see or hear anything inside the sanctuary so headed to the edge of a cocoa plantation

nearby where we heard several calling - a mournful whistle - but couldn't see them. Other

interesting species in the sanctuary include Malabar Spiny Dormice and Pangolins. The former

can probably only be seen by trapping. The latter sometimes get stuck in nets that farmers put out

to protect their fruit.

Pampadum Shola and Top Station

The next morning we set off on the slow 4 hour climb up to Top Station and Pampadum Shola

National Park. There were a few Bonnet Macaques en route and lots of gorgeous scenery.

After transferring to India's oldest Mahindra jeep we bumped up the last 8kms of track to spend

the next two nights at the lovely Camp Noyal, a set of forest bungalows nestled at over 2000

metres amid tea plantations. It was something straight from the Raj.

Camp Noyal

The high altitude rainforest up here is called shola and there is precious little left: first it was

cleared for the tea plantations, and now for short-sighted eucalypt plantations which are big

business (and unfortunately the Australian government have been helping fund the work).

A 2 hour hike up and into the nearest bit of shola to camp was uneventful other that for the

leeches. The forest was largely impenetrable - what might have one been a trail was now

overgrown with head high stinging plants but we did hear a Grizzled (Sri Lankan) Giant

Squirrel but couldn't see it.

We arranged with the camp for a night safari and headed off at 10pm in India's second oldest

Mahindra. The 3 hour drive through patches of shola was surprisingly good: a Black-naped

Hare, several groups of Sambar, 9 Gaur (on the golf course!) and best of all a Brown Palm

Civet, a species I had thought we would struggle to find. The Civet was unfortunately quite high

up and distant and we only saw it for a few seconds while it was feeding in a tall tree.

I set a bunch of elliott traps around the hotel and next morning caught 4 shrews: 3 were the

almost black Hill Shrews (Suncus montanus). The other was smaller with a proportionately

longer, and less bristly, tail. I think it must have been a Day's Shrew (Suncus dayii) so far as I

can tell from the tiny bit of information in the field guide. I also caught a couple of big rats that

were probably Rattus rattus but it would be nice to get some more information on the small

mammals in the area.

Hill Shrew (Suncus montanus)

Day's Shrew (Suncus dayii)

We spent the rest of the day hiking around nearby Pampadum Shola National Park. I was here

mainly to try for the beautiful Nilgiri Marten which seems very hard to see so I didn't hold out

much hope. They are spotted occasionally on the road (even close to the town of Munnar), or in

the forest, but its a rare sighting indeed. Three hours on a forest track from the gate - and back

along the road - to and from the National Park's log camp in the morning, and another 3 hours

down the road to Watavada in the afternoon did not produce a Marten (though the guide we were

with pointed to several scats that he said were from this species). The leeches were as bad as they

come.

We did see a few Nilgiri Langurs (and heard many more) as well as at least 10 Indian Giant

Squirrels (and heard many more). I've never seen a more beautiful squirrel. In fact this might be

the most attractively marked mammal going. We also saw a couple of troops of Bonnet

Macaques.

Indian (Malabar) Giant Squirrel

The next morning we added a very aggressive House Shrew and a House Mouse to the list from

the traps, along with a couple more Hill Shrews and another R.rattus. And then we set off for

Eravikulam.

Eravikulam National Park

Nilgiri Tahr

I'm sure Eravikulam, at the top of a particularly lush mountain, is stunning on a good day. But it

was hard to tell when I was there. The rain was bucketing down when we arrived though it - if

not the clouds - cleared after we took the shuttle bus to the summit. Nilgiri Tahrs are pretty

much guaranteed here and it took us an unusually long 20 minutes to find our first animals. But

once the rain stopped several groups appeared. It was heaving with tourists but that didn't seem

to worry the animals. There were more Bonnet Macaques here too, and Nilgiri Langurs along

the highway just out of town.

Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary

Wild Boar

Chinnar is another 90 minutes from Eravikulam. Its up at about 800 metres and is mainly the

classic dry Indian forest reminiscent of Bandhavgarh, with some evergreen forest along the river.

It was set up primarily to protect the Grizzled Giant Squirrel. We arrived quite late and stayed in

the forest bungalow on the border of Chinnar and Anamalai Tiger Reserve. Great location. Shitty

building (literally my room's only decor was rat poo). It was about 10C warmer inside the house

than outside which was oppressive. It would have been hideous had it not been raining that

afternoon. The forest department provided a chef who cooked up a great meal and we headed out

at about 11pm to spotlight along the road through the park (this sort of activity is forbidden

further north in India but seems to be tolerated down south). In a couple of hours we saw Chital,

Sambar, Northern Red Muntjac, Wild Boar, Black-naped Hares and two groups of Gaur.

Mouse Deer are seen from time to time along the road though we didn't find any.

The next morning it was easy to find Grizzled Giant Squirrels along the river near the

bungalow, and Jungle Striped Squirrels on the other side of the road.

Grizzled Giant Squirrel

We spent 3 hours after breakfast walking around Chambakad Village and back through the bush

to the house. My main aim was the Dusky Striped Squirrel which I was told was quite common

in Tamarind and Banyan trees though this contradicts the IUCN site which says they are

extremely rare and restricted to riparian forest (reed beds in particular) so I have my doubts that

the guide and I were talking about the same species. But he knew we weren't after Jungle Striped

Squirrels so I don't know what he was looking for if it wasn't a Dusky Striped Squirrel...Possible

Treeshrews? Much to the village guide's surprise we couldn't find one. How I wish he hadn't

have said we "were sure to see one". There was plenty of evidence of Elephants in the area, and

Slender Lorises and Pangolins are around too (I was shown Pangolin diggings). Bonnet

Macaques and Tufted Grey Langurs were all around the house and park gate.

Tufted Grey Langurs

Valparai (Tamil Nadu)

Lion-tailed Macaque

Valparai is a 3 hour drive from Chinnar, half of which is in Tamil Nadu a state where drivers

may sound their horns even more often than the Keralites. Its an interesting area: primarily tree

plantations with a mosaic of remnant shola forest in between that provides habitat for many large

animals. Animals that are quite easy to see because they are often crossing from forest patch to

forest patch. Its also the best place to look for the endangered Lion-tailed Macaques which can

apparently take a bit of finding within the national parks they inhabit.

We stayed at the All Season Guest House, run by a tea plantation, in a bungalow that came

complete with a cook. The manager was interested in wildlife and arranged for a local to help me

find the animals.

It began to rain just after we arrived so we put out some traps in the hotel garden and decided to

take the rest of the night off because of the weather (Its often very misty in the afternoon and

evenings which makes night drives something of a challenge, especially as there is a risk of

running into a herd of elephants on a narrow mountain pass). Early the next morning we visited

nearby Puthu Thoottam village where a group of 50 or so Lion-tailed Macaques were waiting

for us. They generally turn up early in the morning to feed before heading back into the forest.

Really great animals.

Lion-tailed Macaque

We also saw Nilgiri Langurs along the main road and a couple of Malabar Giant Squirrels.

Back at the guest house there was a Jungle Striped Squirrel running around, and in the traps we

caught another Rattus rattus (probably - the cream bellied animals here seem way too pretty to

me to be this species) as well as two mice. I'm as sure as I can be that, with their bi-coloured tail

a little shorter than then 8cm body, they were Cooke's Mouse (Mus cookii), though they might

also have been the endemic Bonhote's Mouse (Mus famulus). I stand ready to be corrected on

both counts.

Cooke's Mouse

The hotel manager summoned me to see a group of Elephants feeding in a nearby shola patch

later that morning and we saw a Wild Boar in the same area. We looked for Sloth Bears during

a late afternoon game drive that are apparently common but couldn't find any. We did see a

couple of Gaur though and more Elephants. A night drive was pretty quiet, with just a Sambar,

a few more Gaur and a Black-naped Hare all close to the hotel.

Gaur

In the morning something - presumably a Sloth Bear - had trashed a few of my traps set around

the guest house. THe only animals inside were a Jungle Striped Squirrel and another Cooke's

Mouse. Our final early morning drive added a rather dark Grey Mongoose to the trip list, with a

Ruddy Mongoose and Bonnet Macaques about 30 minutes down the mountain towards

Anamalai as we headed to Parambikulam.

A great spot and one that ought to be added to the ecotour circuit.

Indian Elephant

Parambikulam Tiger Reserve

Tree Top Cabin

Parambikulam, back in Kerala, is 3 hours from Valparai. Sasi works here, and has campaigned

over the past 14 years to ensure the local community see the benefit of ecotourism. Its 650 square

kilometres of evergreen forest and Teak plantation and borders the Anamalai Tiger Reserve.

There were a few Nilgiri Langurs, some Grey Langurs (though I am not sure what species) and

a few hybrids hanging around the Anamalai gate 4kms before Parambikulam. Sasi arranged for

me to stay in a fabulous tree top cabin inside the park. It was blissfully quiet for an Indian park:

Parambikulam is closed to day visitor's vehicles during the day and all vehicles at night. They

run a few safari minibuses for day visitors which keeps disturbance at a minimum.

During a late afternoon drive we saw stacks of Wild Boar and Chital Deer, all extremely

habituated, several nice groups of Gaur, Nilgiri Langurs and a few Sambar. We missed a herd

of Elephants by a few minutes.

Nilgiri Langur

After a wonderful night of solitude in the cabin I set off early to check for Sloth Bears in an

abandoned building 500m off of the road. Its an active den. Full of proof that bears shit not just

in the woods but in old houses too. But the bears must have been away for the weekend. There

were a colony of Horseshoe Bats inside: I think Rufous Horseshoe Bats (Rhinolophus rouxii)

though at first I thought there were two species. Half were bright orange and the others, much

more clustered together, were grey. But looking at the photos they appear all to be R. rouxii

(indeed a couple of individuals appeared to be turning from grey to orange, or vice versa).

Meanwhile Sasi told me he'd seen a Leopard cross the road last evening after he had dropped

me at my cabin.

Spot the difference: Red and Grey Rufous Horseshoes (Rhinolophus rouxii)

We walked for an hour or so through the bush and saw lots of Nilgiri Langurs and Spotted Deer,

old Tiger scats and heard an Indian Giant Squirrel. A Serpent Eagle, flushed from the trail, was

munching on a fresh Indian Giant Flying Squirrel which it had presumably caught not long

after dawn. They are big animals up close.

Indian Giant Flying Squirrel / Serpent Eagle breakfast

Jungle Striped Squirrels were common around the park restaurant.

Jungle Striped Squirrel

After a cup of tea we drove up the hill towards Parambikulam Village with a local guide,

Shanmugam. He's one of the park's birding guides and reckoned we'd easily see a Dusky Striped

Squirrel. He wasn't wrong. This is an interestingly little known species. The IUCN claim its

been recorded very few times but it is not uncommon at Parambikulam. We heard several calling

- with a distinctive 'squeaky wheel' kind of a whistle - along the road up to the village. The

squirrels apparently live in the thickets at the base of mature stands of bamboo and we heard at

least 3 in this habitat in the space of 20 minutes.We got a brief look at one zipping around inside

a thicket. They are small, shy and hard to photograph which perhaps explains the paucity of

records. Plus few people have been looking I imagine.

Dusky Striped Squirrel habitat

After finding the squirrel so quickly Sasi decided we ought to move to the Nellyampathy Hills,

in the western buffer zone of the park for the second night as it was a good area for Indian Mouse

Deer (a species much less common than its cousin in Sri Lanka). We could also take a night

drive there, something prohibited in the park itself. The area is also good for Lion-tailed

Macaques.

It took a couple of hours to get to the government hotel (whatever your views on privatisation

and nationalisation I don't think I've ever stayed in a nice government hotel...but the food at least,

and as always in Kerala, was good). We set out as soon as it got dark for what turned into an

excellent 4 hour drive. My first Indian Mouse Deer, great views of 5 Indian Giant Flying

Squirrels, a few Sambar, a Black-naped Hare and a prolonged look at a youngish (but still 2m

long I would guess) King Cobra that was slithering back and forth trying to find an escape route

from under the tree root we'd baled it up into. We stopped half way at Pakuthipalam, the tiny

village Sasi grew up in and had a cup of tea while his cousin expressed considerable concern at

the amount of blood stains on my trousers and the amount of blood flowing from my arms

(having taken the best bits of my legs the leeches were moving to higher ground).

Indian Giant Flying Squirrel

The next morning there were Cooke's Mice and a Hill Shrew in the traps, and Malabar Giant

Squirrel, Northern Red Muntjac and Bonnet Macaques around the hotel. Another top park and

one that should be on every mammal watcher's itinerary.

Wayanad & Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuaries

Black-footed Grey Langur

It took most of the day to get to Wayanad. I wanted to visit here primarily to see Black-footed

Grey Langurs, one of the several species (though some people aren't sure its a full species) that

the Hanuman Langur was split into. Wayanad was a convenient place to stop. Its rather more

disturbed than the other parks I'd been too and more touristy too. I stayed at the Rain County

resort which was more luxurious than the other places I'd stayed but I didn't like it so much: I

saw my first western tourists here. A short spotlight walk along the drive to the hotel produced

another Indian Giant Flying Squirrel and a small mega-bat, presumably a Cynopterus species.

Sasi had never seen Langurs near the hotel so after breakfast we decided to head to Nagerahole

National Park, probably the easiest spot to see some, and also en route to Bangalore, our next

destination. As we got closer to Nagerahole we discovered the park is only open for a couple of

hours at dusk and dawn so we decided to try nearby Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary. That too was

shut during the middle of the day (I've no idea why) but there were Black-footed Grey Langurs

in the trees near the park gate. Problem solved. They certainly had rather different colouration to

their Tufted and Southern Plains relatives.

We continued on to Bangalore for my last night. Half of Bangalore appeared to be under

construction. The other half was stuck in traffic. I am not in a hurry to return.

Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary (Karnataka)

I'd seen Sloth Bear only once, and poorly, in Yala National Park Sri Lanka, so decided to change

my schedule to spend our last day at the Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary, 300kms north of

Bangalore. Now 300kms in India is usually a full day's drive but once you escape Bangalore

traffic its a fast 3 lane toll road for the first 200km so it took just 5 hours to reach Hospet. Our

driver certainly relished the chance to drive on a fast road. The man has no fear and our trip

made Death Race 2000 look like Driving Miss Daisy. But we survived. And, after some lunch,

and a local metal shop repaired my bear damaged traps, we drove the last 26km to the sanctuary.

There have always been Sloth Bear at Daroji but in1994 the community decided to set up a park,

put a wall around - and revegetate - some good habitat. Visitors head to a watchtower

overlooking some rocks where food is put out out each afternoon (I think to make the bears

easier to watch rather than because they need the food). The park opens at 13.30 and shuts at

18.00. We arrived at 2.15 and had to wait for about 10 minutes before a mother and cubs came

trotting down the rocky hill side for a late lunch. They mooched around for 45 minutes before

one of the staff's dogs turned up for a feed too and the bears trotted back to their cave. There was

a Three-lined Palm Squirrel here too, and I think I saw a Wild Boar briefly. I've heard reports

of Pangolins in the park and the habitat looked good. We set off back to Bangalore in the hope

we could drive a little more slowly to make my flight. We made the flight. We drove no less

quickly.

So over 40 species including just about all of my targets. I'd normally have tried to have done the

trip a bit more quickly but the extra 3 or 4 days paid off to make for a very enjoyable and a

successful 12 days. This was largely thanks to Sasi's great efforts. A big thanks to him and to

Anil at North West for organising it and looking after me.

Stuff I missed

I was focusing, as usual, on seeing species I hadn't seen before, particularly the Western Ghat

endemics. So I made no effort to see Tigers or several other nice species such as Dholes or

Lorises on this trip. That said I'd have been extremely lucky to have seen a Tiger even if I had

been trying. They are around but much harder to see that in parks like Bandhavgarh. I was very

pleased to see all of the larger than rat-sized endemics other than the Nilgiri Marten which was

always a long shot, the Malabar Hedgehog and the Malabar Civet which hasn't been recorded in

20 years.

Nilgiri Marten: they are probably not as hard to see as people would have your believe. Most

people I spoke to who lived around Munnar had seen them albeit rarely and I think if you spent a

week up there driving the road from Munnar to Watavada you'd have a reasonable chance. The

bad news is that they are rare. The good news is that if you see one they seem both fearless and

curious and may well walk up to you.

Malabar Civet: I didn't even ask about this species. It may well be extinct.

Malabar Hedgehog: strangely only one person said he'd seen hedgehogs and that was at Top

Station where he reckoned they would often come to the restaurant looking for scraps of food.

I'm not sure if that's accurate.

Travancore Flying Squirrel: the only place people knew about these was Thatekkad where we

allegedly heard several. I imagine they would have been present in some of the other parks

(especially Chinnar which was lower in altitude than the other places I visited) but there is

probably very little spotlighting done in those places.

I was also keeping an eye out for Fishing Cats (no one reported seeing these), Pangolins (they

are around but as always very hard to see), Malabar Spiny Dormouse (they had a stuffed one in

Thatekkad that they had found after a fire but you'd realistically only have much chance to see

one in a trap I think), Madras Tree Shrew (no one I spoke to had seen one of these) and White-

tailed Woodrats which are probably common and I may even have seen one or two in Chinnar

on the night drive but I can't be sure.

Trip List (lifers prefixed with an F)

Indian Hare Lepus nigricollis

F Indian Giant Squirrel Ratufa indica

Sri Lankan Giant Squirrel Ratufa macroura

Indian Palm Squirrel Funambulus palmarum

F Dusky Palm Squirrel Funambulus sublineatus

F Jungle Palm Squirrel Funambulus tristriatus

Indian Giant Flying Squirrel Petaurista philippensis

F Cook's Mouse Mus cookii

House Mouse Mus musculus

House Rat (Black Rat) Rattus rattus

F Jerdon's Palm Civet Paradoxurus jerdoni

Indian Gray Mongoose Herpestes edwardsii

Ruddy Mongoose Herpestes smithii

Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus

F Day's Shrew Suncus dayi

F Sri Lanka Highland Shrew Suncus montanus

Asian House Shrew Suncus murinus

F Leschenault's Rousette Rousettus leschenaulti

Indian Flying Fox Pteropus giganteus

Black-bearded Tomb Bat Taphozous melanopogon

F Greater False Vampire Bat Megaderma lyra

Rufous Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus rouxii

F Fulvous Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros fulvus

Schneider's Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros speoris

Greater Asiatic Yellow Bat Scotophilus heathi

Southern Plains Gray Langur Semnopithecus dussumieri

F Black-footed Gray Langur Semnopithecus hypoleucos

Tufted Gray Langur Semnopithecus priam

F Hooded Leaf Monkey (Nilgiri Langur) Trachypithecus johnii

Rhesus Macaque Macaca mulatta

F Bonnet Macaque Macaca radiata

F Lion-tailed Macaque Macaca silenus

Eurasian Wild Boar Sus scrofa

F Indian Chevrotain Moschiola indica

Northern Red Muntjac Muntiacus vaginalis

Sambar Cervus unicolor

Chital (Axis Deer) Axis axis

F Nilgiri Tahr Hemitragus hylocrius

Gaur Bos gaurus

Asian Elephant Elephas maximus

40 species

Itinerary

7 October: arrive Mumbai at 2am and the day at Elephanta and Kanheri Caves

8 October: Fly to Kochi and drive to Thatekkad Bird Sanctuary

9 October: Top Slip

10 October: Top Slip

11 October: to Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary

12 October: to Valparai

13 October: Valparai

14 October: to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve

15 October: Parambikulam Tiger Reserve (Nellyampathy Hills)

16 October: to Wayanad

17 October: to Bangalore via Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary

18 October: Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary and late night flight from Bangalore to Paris