The Wildlife of Southern Thailand

Thailand's treasures include not only scrumptious food and remarkable culture, there is a lot of very unique wildlife. Our favorite jungle wildlife tour is to Khao Sok National Park. The amount of wildlife there is astounding!

We have photos of most of what we've seen. We don't just list what is 'supposed' to be here. Wild claims like seeing tigers in Khao Sok don't ever seem to be supported by photos...hmm. Elephant are there and we see them rather often. Check out this Khao Sok elephant video.

Here are some wonderful White-handed Gibbon photos.

You can see some of our photos at:
Mammal photos
Khao Sok animal photos
Khao Sok images (with a photo of a paddler close to a baby elephant)
More Khao Sok wildlife images
Wildlife images from one of our guests
Reptile image gallery
Cave animals (taken by one of our guests)

Insect image galleries:
Insect images 1
Insect images 2
Insect images 3
Insect images 4
Insect images 5
Butterfly gallery

Click here to see somemore Khao Sok photos taken by a former guest

Thailand’s Very Interesting Numbers

Of the 282 species of mammals in Thailand, 92 are bats. Bats make up approximately 30% of all the mammal species on the earth.
90% of all the animals in Thailand are insects.
Thailand hosts 30 species of sea snakes.
There are 4 species of sea turtles here. Interestingly, a turtle’s sex is determined by the temperature in the nest. Warmer nests produce females, whereas cooler or deeper ones produce males.
There are over 1,300 varieties of orchids.
There are at least 1,900 species of fish in the waters around Thailand (likely to be 30 to 40% higher)
Thailand has 1,200 species of butterflies
There are approximately 200 species of hawk moths in Thailand.
There are at least 405 species of reptiles and amphibians
10,000 species of beetles has been recorded in one national park alone.
Over 200 species of trees can exist in a 100 square meter section of rainforest.
Did you know that there are at least 400 species of coral fish?
Thailand has 250 species of hard corals
At least 204 species of birds that have been recorded in Thailand’s mangrove forests!
There have been more than 925 species of birds recorded in Thailand.
54 species of crabs have been recorded in the mangrove forests of Thailand.
Less than 1,500 square kilometers (600 square miles) of mangrove forest still exist on the coastlines of Thailand. Of that, only 3% is in “protected” areas.
A research project on the plants of Thailand has produced of 25,000 species of vascular plants (plants that have transport systems for saps and fluids). Approximately 12,000 species are flowering plants.
Over 300 species of ficus (fig) exist in Thailand. They all bear fruit at different times. They are a major source of food for many animal species. Incidentally, there are over 700 species worldwide and 500 of those exist in Asia and Astral-Asia. Even the botanists have a difficult time telling some species apart.
Thailand boasts 13 primates, 3 apes (all gibbons), 9 monkeys (langurs and macaques) and the very cute little Slow Loris.