Khao Sam Roi Yot Wildlife: Marsh, Karst and Shorebirds

Dusky Langur (Spectacled Leaf Monkey) Common Endangered

Trachypithecus obscurus

White spectacles make the adults look permanently startled, and the bright orange babies are pure crowd pleasers.

Where: Limestone slopes above the visitor areas and around Phraya Nakhon. Best: Year round, morning. The park's signature primate and easy to find on the karst edges.

Long-tailed Macaque Common Endangered

Macaca fascicularis

The bold, water-loving monkey of temples and mangroves, and despite its ubiquity now one of the most heavily exploited primates on Earth.

Where: Coastal forest, mangroves and the cave trails. Best: Year round, day. Bold around the Phraya Nakhon trail. Keep bags closed.

Wrinkle-lipped Free-tailed Bat Common

Chaerephon plicatus

The bat behind Thailand's great cave exodus, when millions stream out at dusk in a river of wings.

Where: Cave systems in the limestone hills. Best: Year round, dusk.

Asian Small-clawed Otter Occasional Vulnerable

Aonyx cinereus

The smallest otter in the world, a sociable, hand-using charmer that feels for prey with nimble fingers.

Where: Mangrove creeks and quiet canals. Best: Year round, early morning.

Smooth-coated Otter Occasional Vulnerable

Lutrogale perspicillata

Family flotillas of sleek otters fishing, wrestling and chirruping through rivers and pools, endlessly watchable.

Where: Canals and the marsh channels. Best: Year round, early morning.

Fishing Cat Rare Vulnerable

Prionailurus viverrinus

A wild cat that dives for fish, with partially webbed toes and a genuine love of swimming.

Where: Reedbeds and canals in the freshwater marsh. Best: Year round, night. The marsh here is one of the better Thai sites, but sightings are still exceptional.

Jungle Cat Rare

Felis chaus

A tall, long-legged, plain-coated cat of reedbeds and grassland, more at home in the open than the deep forest.

Where: Marsh edges and scrub. Best: Year round, dusk.

Mainland Serow Rare Vulnerable

Capricornis sumatraensis

A shaggy, goat-like antelope of steep limestone cliffs, sure-footed on ground almost nothing else can climb.

Where: Limestone cliffs and karst peaks. Best: Year round, dawn. Look up at the cliff faces rather than along the trails.

Common Kingfisher Common

Alcedo atthis

A dazzling blue dart along the stream, small enough to sit in a palm yet impossible to miss when it flies.

Where: Canals and marsh channels. Best: Nov-Mar, morning.

Germain's Swiftlet Common

Aerodramus germani

The little cave swift whose nest of pure saliva is harvested from sheer sea caves for bird's nest soup.

Where: Caves and over the marsh. Best: Year round, day.

Pacific Reef Heron Regular

Egretta sacra

Comes in two entirely different colours, charcoal grey and pure white, and both can hatch in the same nest.

Where: Rocky shore and the beach at Laem Sala. Best: Year round, on a falling tide.

Pheasant-tailed Jacana Regular

Hydrophasianus chirurgus

A lily-trotting waterbird that walks on floating leaves on enormous toes, growing a long curved tail when it breeds.

Where: Floating vegetation in the marsh. Best: Year round, breeding plumage Jun-Sep. In breeding plumage this is one of the most striking birds in Thailand.

Purple Heron Regular

Ardea purpurea

A slender, snake-necked heron in rich chestnut and slate that melts into the reeds it hunts among.

Where: Reedbeds in the freshwater marsh. Best: Nov-Apr, morning.

Black-capped Kingfisher Occasional

Halcyon pileata

A striking mangrove kingfisher in black, white and deep purple-blue, a winter visitor to Thailand's coasts.

Where: Mangrove edges and coastal canals. Best: Nov-Mar.

Great Knot Occasional Endangered

Calidris tenuirostris

Flies from Siberia to Australia with a single refuelling stop, and losing that one mudflat has nearly finished the species.

Where: Tidal mudflats north of the park. Best: Nov-Mar.

Oriental Darter Occasional Near Threatened

Anhinga melanogaster

The snakebird, swimming with only its slim neck above water before it spears a fish on a dagger bill.

Where: Open water in the marsh. Best: Nov-Apr.

Chinese Egret Rare Vulnerable

Egretta eulophotes

Hunts by sprinting across the mudflat with wings half open, a running dash that no other egret uses.

Where: Tidal flats and salt pans. Best: Nov-Mar.

Malaysian Plover Rare Near Threatened

Anarhynchus peronii

Nests in a scrape on open beach so well camouflaged that the greatest danger is being stepped on.

Where: Quiet sandy beaches. Best: Year round, early morning at low tide.

Nordmann's Greenshank Rare Endangered

Tringa guttifer

One of the world's rarest waders, a stocky greenshank that winters on Thai mudflats among thousands of commoner shorebirds.

Where: Tidal mudflats. Best: Nov-Mar.

Spoon-billed Sandpiper Rare Critically Endangered

Calidris pygmaea

One of the world's rarest and most charismatic shorebirds, tiny and armed with an unmistakable spatula bill.

Where: Salt pans and mudflats along the Gulf shore nearby. Best: Nov-Mar. The Inner Gulf sites north of here are the reliable ones; treat a bird here as a bonus.

Common Butterfly Lizard Occasional

Leiolepis belliana

A ground lizard that flares brilliant orange and black bars on its flanks like opening butterfly wings.

Where: Sandy ground and dune scrub. Best: Year round, warm hours.

Tailless Whip Scorpion Regular

Phrynichus orientalis

Looks genuinely alarming and is completely harmless: no venom, no sting, and a pair of legs converted into three foot feelers.

Where: Cave walls and karst overhangs. Best: Year round, night. Harmless, and the caves here are the easiest place in Thailand to see one.

Segmented Trapdoor Spider Rare

Liphistius sp.

The most primitive spiders alive, with a visibly segmented abdomen, essentially unchanged for 300 million years.

Where: Earth banks on the cave trails. Best: May-Oct, night.