31 March 14 - Indian Mammals Fest

Having completed all the daily posts on my recent Indian trip, I thought I would put a post together of all the mammals I photographed on the trip to Calcutta, the Andamans, the Western Ghats, Gujarat & Rajasthan. I only spent a couple of half days birding around Calcutta, but I saw a Brown Rat at about 04:00, as I was waiting for the night watchman to open my hotel on my first night. The only other mammal in Calcutta was an Indian Mongoose. On the Andamans, a Five-striped Palm Squirrel & some unidentified Bats were the only mammals seen. However, I saw a good variety of mammals on the rest of the trip. In total, I managed to photograph 27 species (excluding the Water Buffalo) & saw another 6 species. Here are the mammals I did get to photograph. No doubt my mates, Richard Webb & John Wright, will tell me if there are any misidentifications.

Rhesus Macaque: Bharatpur, Rajasthan (27 Jan 14)

Bonnet Macaque: Travelling from Jungle Hut to Ooty, Western Ghats (30 Dec 13)

Southern Plains Grey Langur: Mount Abu, Rajasthan (21 Jan 14)

Tufted Grey Langur: Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (28 Dec 13)

Nilgiri Langur: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (1 Jan 14)

Jackal: CEDO, Gujarat (19 Jan 14)

Jackal: Bharatpur, Rajasthan (28 Jan 14)

Indian Fox: Desert Coursers, Gujarat (17 Jan 14)

Indian Mongoose: CEDO, Gujarat (20 Jan 14)

Asian Elephant: Periyar Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats (10 Jan 14)

Wild Ass: Desert Coursers (15 Jan 14) 

Wild Boar: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (1 Jan 14)

Chital Deer: Male. Bharatpur, Rajasthan (27 Jan 14)

Chital Deer: Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (28 Dec 13)

Chital Deer: Bharatpur, Rajasthan (27 Jan 14)

Sambar Deer: Male. Periyar Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats (10 Jan 14)

Sambar Deer: Female. Parambikulam, Western Ghats (2 Jan 14)

Muntjac: Periyar Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats (10 Jan 14)

Gaur: Ooty, Western Ghats (30 Dec 13)

Gaur: Periyar Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats (10 Jan 14)

Nilgai: Male. Sultanpur, Rajasthan (29 Jan 14)

Nilgai: Female. Bharatpur, Rajasthan (27 Jan 14)

Water Buffalo: All the Water Buffalo I saw were probably domesticated. Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (30 Dec 13)

 Chinkara: Family Party. Tal Chappar (24 Jan 14)

Blackbuck: Male. Tal Chappar (24 Jan 14)

Blackbuck: Females & an immature male. Tal Chappar (24 Jan 14)

Nilgiri Tahr: Eravikulam, Western Ghats (4 Jan 14)

Nilgiri Tahr: Eravikulam, Western Ghats (4 Jan 14)

Three-striped Palm Squirrel: Thattekad, Western Ghats (5 Jan 14)

Three-striped Palm Squirrel: Bharatpur, Rajasthan (27 Jan 14)

Western Ghats Palm Squirrel: Periyar Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats (10 Jan 14) 

Five-striped Palm Squirrel: Mount Abu, Rajasthan (21 Jan 14)

Nilgiri Palm Squirrel: Thattekad, Western Ghats (5 Jan 14) 

Indian Giant Squirrel: Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (28 Dec 13)

Indian Giant Squirrel: Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (29 Dec 13) 

Indian Giant Squirrel: Chinnar, Western Ghats (3 Jan 14)

Indian Giant Squirrel: Thattekad, Western Ghats (5 Jan 14) 

Indian Giant Flying Squirrel: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (1 Jan 14)

Indian Giant Flying Squirrel: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (1 Jan 14)

Black-naped Hare: Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (28 Dec 13) 

Black-naped Hare: CEDO, Gujarat (20 Jan 14)

Frustratingly, I failed to get a photo of two of the best mammals seen (Caracal at CEDO, Gujarat & Jungle Cat at Tal Chappar, Rajasthan). Less exciting & not photographed (although I tried) was a Mouse feeding in the drinks stall at Bharatpur. Additionally, I saw several Foxes & photographed one, but the photos were too poor to keep, (given the species extends as far as the UK). Additionally, I didn't photograph a medium sized Bat at Bharatpur (too tedious) or the many Fruit Bats at Periyar (never saw them when I had the camera).

The Indian trip was focused on birding & all mammals seen were a result of bumping into them whilst birding, rather than a specific attempt to see the mammals. On my 91 trip to India, I was lucky to see a female Tiger with 3 cubs & so no attempt was made to see Tigers again. Likewise, I've seen Lions in Kenya & Wolves in Tibet, so no attempt was made to get to Gir in Gujarat (mainly as it would have meant dropping at least one of the birding sites).

21 Jan 14 - Goodbye Gujarat, Hello Rajasthan

A dawn start as we had a 490 km drive from CEDO to Mount Abu. We would also be crossing an Indian state line. Vehicle registration is often on a state by state basis & therefore vehicles travelling into a different state need to sort out extra paperwork & of course pay some money. Armed with all the papers, it wasn't more than a few minutes for Shiva to sort this out & to get the car legal for the rest of the month in Rajasthan. This is partially a road tax payment & was a relatively modest cost, but failure to sort this out, could lead to a bigger fine if you were checked by the police. The office was just a voluntary pull in at the state boundary & it wasn't that obvious, but Shiva was well aware he needed to sort this out. Armed with the extra papers we were quickly on our way. The roads for the journey were good most of the way, with fairly empty toll dual carriageways (often costing about 1 Rupee per km). Despite looking like empty motorways, there seemed to be nothing to stop who used them, so often local farm traffic appeared on them for local journeys.

Overladen tractor

Mount Abu is an interesting place in India as it's one of the most Northerly places for birds & mammals with a predominantly South Western distribution. It is also one of the best sites for the Indian endemic Green Avadavat. This is a really good looking uncommon Estrilid, which has a wide range (on paper) in Central India, but generally in areas that are off the beaten track for birders. Mount Abu is one of the few sites that can be fitted into a Gujarat/Rajasthan trip, albeit with a lot of driving.

Mount Abu: Looks interesting forest, but was fairly quiet for birds

Finally in mid afternoon after 6 hours of dull driving, we had reached the base of Mount Abu. The road winds steadily upwards onto a hillside of dry forest, which was a nice change after the agricultural fields & arid scrub of the plains. We tried a couple of short stops, but didn't see a lot of birds.

White-eyed Buzzard: Immature

Indian White-eye 

White-bellied Drongo

Southern Plains Grey Langur: This was the commonest wildlife on the road up Mount Abu

Southern Plains Grey Langur: Whilst looking cute & innocent, like all habituated Monkeys you need to keep an eye on them to avoid them getting into the car or trying to grab something

Shiva was concerned about the extra passengers 

Map of Mount Abu: A confusing maze of roads & not to scale. We wanted the Peace Park in the top right. Turns out the distance from the Peace Park to Trevor's Tank, the next point on the map, is further than the distance to our hotel in town (at the bottom right corner)

After finding a reasonably priced, but unremarkable, hotel we headed out for the last couple of hours of light. The main birding site is next to the Peace Park. We headed off in that direction, but stopped to bird around a scrubby & wooded hill side above a lake. I wasn't surprised, when we later visited the lake to find the edge covered in broken glass bottles. Gujarat is a largely Muslim & dry state. In comparison, alcohol is commonly available in Rajasthan & it seems that it is expected to throw the empty beer & whisky bottles so it smashes.

Ashy Prinia: Well marked adult

Ashy Prinia: Immature with well marked barring on the undertail tips

Tailorbird

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. Also known as Red-throated Flycatcher. This is a colder grey bird than a Red-breasted Flycatcher. Photos of an subadult male RBF can be found in an earlier blog (A Cracking Woodpecker at Jungle Hut)

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. The extent of the red seems to vary on Taiga Flycatchers & this is about the maximum seen. The red would extend further onto the breast if it was an RBF

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. The tail & upper tail coverts are blacker than on an RBF & again the colder grey upperparts are obvious

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. The all black bill is another good feature (it would be pale based on an RBF)

Indian Black-lored Tit: Also known as Indian Yellow Tit

Indian Black-lored Tit

Rufous Treepie

Yellow-throated Sparrow

Five-striped Palm Squirrel

In the late afternoon, we carried on along the road & found the Peace Park. There was a chance for a quick exploration of the small arable village behind the Peace Park which is one of the best areas to see the Green Avadavat, but no joy with the Green Avadavat.

The small village by the Peace Park

The small village: It's very traditional

The small village overlooked a set of small fields