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"This is why Khao Yai national park is truly amazing!"

The tour started very succesful;  The end was unbelievable

Published June 11, 2010     Tour Reports     Click here to leave a comment

Khao Yai national park, a place that rarely disappoints and sometimes even truly surprises.

A couple that had travelled for 3 months through South-East Asia came to visit Khao Yai with a tour of ours. Even though they travelled for 3 months, they did not see wild Asian Elephants, they only had heard Gibbons, and they had never had a good view of a snake in the wild.
Though the animals in a national park do not work on request, or do they?

The first day we saw the usual wildlife, nothing special though. The next day the party started. On an early morning drive we had a close look at some Hornbills, both the Oriental Pied Hornbill and the impressive Great Hornbill. On the road ahead some Red Jungle Fowls crossed the road. A long-tailed acrobat was jumping around in the forest canopy, it turned out to be the Black Giant Squirrel. We heard some Gibbons and one of us caught a glimpse of a Gibbon. Though, we did not all see it as it was gone as fast as it came. We usually finish a day with an exciting night drive. The first night was an average drive, but this evening we had a bit more luck ... well, a lot more luck. As soon as we drove through the first open grassy plain something caught our eye in the distance near the forest edge. It was hard to see as it was actually too far for the spotlight to enlighten the scene. But with our binoculars we managed to identify the animal. A solitary male Asian Elephant was browsing in the bushes near the edge of the forest. What an amazing start, a wild Asian Elephant!
We waited for a while when it came closer to a saltlick not far from the road. An impressive sight!
We still had quite a drive ahead of us. Lots of deer, both Sambar and Barking Deer (Muntjac) seemed to enjoy being 'in the spotlights'. We saw several civet cats.
Besides their wish to see wild elephants they also would like to see a snake in the wild. They did not expect to see one of this size, though. A huge Burmese Python was on the hunt. About 3.70 metres long! What a drive!
Better than this it won’t get. Or does it ...

The third day we started again we some huge Great Hornbills. A little bit further on the road we stopped, because we heard some Gibbons. It took a while to track them off-trail in the forest, but we were rewarded for our efforts. We were under a small family of White-handed Gibbons. We enjoyed it for quite a while.
Our plan was to walk a trail in the jungle, but heavy rainfall made us turn around and we decided to relax a bit. After the rain had stopped the man still wanted to get out there, the woman decided to stay with Tan on the camping grounds.
The first part of the walk we were welcomed by hundreds of animals. Leeches, leeches and some more leeches. When we reached an area of secondary forest, more dry than the forest we just came from we took of the leeches that attached to our shoes and leechsocks. We heard a Dhole (Asian Wild Dog) barking. We tried to track it, but instead of the dog we got to see quite a lot of Siamese Firebacks. Not bad either.

We still had quite a wlak ahead of us and it was already late in the afternoon so we decided to walk a bit faster. We heard some branches break and all kinds of stuff came falling out of a tree, though we did not see what animal it was. Slowly, we got closer until we were literally under the tree which was still moving. The only thing we were occasionally able to see, was some black fur. In the tree next to it there seemed to be a large nest. When I told the man about bears in Khao Yai which are able to build nests in trees, he thought I was talking nonsense. Bears that build nests in trees? Yeah right!
Even as a guide I did not expect to see a bear in thick jungle like Khao Yai. You must be incredibly lucky.
But the longer we were looking at the moving branches, the more I started to believe there had to be a bear in that tree. We decided to look for a better angle in the hope to see the animal. And as we found a spot where we had a good look, the animal also looked at us. A face of a Malayan Sun Bear turned to our side and we could even see the white marking on its chest!
WOOOOOW!!! Now that is amazing. This is one of the most endangered bear species in the world!
All of the sudden, the bear decided to come down. He seemed to be relaxed at the start, though we looked for a slightly safer distance, closer to the original trail we were following. the only thing I had on me was a simple compact camera which was still in video mode. I started to shoot, but in the mean while the bear seemed to be more in a hurry to go down. So 3 seconds later we decided to run. A roar was the last thing we heard from it. He didn't charge us.

The adrenaline rushed through our veins when we stopped on a safer distance.
I have seen lots of wildlife while travelling around the world, but I think nothing can beat this amazing sighting!
Finding an endangered bear species in a huge evergreen forest is nearly impossible. And we were already so happy seeing a wild elephant, a huge python several gibbons and all the rest.
Khao Yai national park is truly amazing!

Below, you can find the movie I shot in the last few seconds when the bear came down.

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