Thailand Guide
The northeast: Isaan
Khao Yai wildlife
During the daytime you're bound to hear some of the local wildlife, even if you don't catch sight of it. Noisiest of all are the white-handed (lar)gibbons, which hoot and whoop from the tops of the tallest trees, and the pileated (capped) gibbons, whose call is more of a bubbling trill. Gibbons generally avoid contact with the ground, but this is not the case with the hard-to-miss pig-tailedmacaques, many of whom gather at favoured spots on the road through the park. Hornbills also create quite a racket, calling attention to themselves by flapping their enormous wings; Khao Yai harbours large flocks of four different hornbill species, which makes it one of the best places in Southeast Asia to observe these creatures. The great hornbill is particularly beautiful, with brilliant yellow and black undersides; the magnificent oriental pied hornbill boasts less striking black and white colouring, but is more commonly seen at close range because it swoops down to catch fish, rats and reptiles. You might also see red-headed trogons, orange-breasted trogons, silver pheasants, woodpeckers and Asian fairy-bluebirds and, if you're lucky, the fire-back pheasant, endemic only to Thailand and western Cambodia. From November to March Khao Yai hosts several species of migrant birds, including the dramatically coloured Siberian thrush and the orange-headed thrush.
A herd of about two hundred Asian elephants lives in the park, and its members are often seen at night – it's the only place in Thailand where you have much likelihood of spotting wild elephants. Khao Yai is also home to an ever-dwindling number of tigers, currently estimated at fifteen, sightings of which are rare, though not mythical. You're almost certain to spot civets, and you might come across a slow loris, while barking deer and sambar deer are less nervous after dark. Wrinkle-lippedbats assemble en masse at sunset, especially at the cave entrance on Khao Luuk Chang (Baby Elephant Mountain), 6km north of the north (main) gate into the park, which every evening disgorges millions of them on their nightly forage.