Fauna

Thailand’s Biodiversity

Thailand has a wonderful array of animal species. Most of its wild mammals, however, are extremely rare due to extensive depletion of their natural habitat, which means only the most determined wildlife enthusiasts will get the chance to glimpse animals in the wild. Many of Thailand’s mammals are on the IUCN ‘Redlist’.

Thailand hasn’t conducted many, or possibly any large scale studies of it’s wild fauna and it is therefore very difficult to say just how many individuals there are in a given species.

Amazing camera traps in the south of Thailand reveal that wild Asian elephants, tigers and leopards roam free, although due to loss of habitat their numbers must be critically low. Two examples of species numbers are as follows:

Asian Elephant

• Captivity: 3,500 – 4,000
• Wild: 3,000 – 3,700
• Range: 30 – ±600km²

For further information about the Asian Elephant, follow this link.

Indochinese Tiger (aka Corbett’s Tiger)

• Captivity: 14 (figure not limited to Thailand)
• Wild: 250 – 300 (this report with video from the Guardian newspaper suggests the number could be higher than expected, with between 20-50 individuals in the 2,235km² Thap Lan national park alone)
• Range: 200 – 1000km²
• Point of Interest: The Indochinese tiger is thought by many scientists to be closest genetic relation to the original ancestor of all tiger species and for this reason is of particular importance for global tiger research and species survival.

For further information about what you can do to help the Indochinese Tiger, follow this link.

Mammals

• Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor)
• Muntiacus muntjak (Barking Deer)
• Fea’s muntjac
• Serow  / Goral
• Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri)
• Gaur (Bos gaurus)
• Masked palm civet (Paguma larvata)
• Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus)
• Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus)
• Wild boar (Sus scrofa)
• Northern pigtailed macaque (Macaca leonina)
• Eastern assamese macaque (Macaca assamensis)
• Phayre’s langur / Leaf monkey (Trachypithecus phayrei)
• Lar gibbon (Hylobates lar)
• Hairy footed flying squirrel (Belomys pearsonii)
• Asiatic wild dog / Dhole (Cuon alpinus)
• Wild rabbit
• Lesser bamboo rat (Cannomys badius)

Birds

Thailand has a huge number of bird species, over 950!, and in the highlands a great number can live in a relatively small area. Dramatic temperature variations on tropical mountains help support wider numbers of birds than areas with the same temperature. Doi Inthanon, for example, Thailand’s highest peak at 2,565m above sea level, where temperatures can be simultaneously freezing at the top and 35°c at the bottom, is thought to host over 360 bird species alone!

• Plain pouched hornbill (Rhyticeros subruficollis)
• Red jungle fowl
• Malayan koel (Eudynamys malayana)
• Singing myna
• Turtle dove
• Drongo
• Blue magpie (Urocissa erythrorhyncha)
• Coucal
• Stripe-breasted quail
• Ga-hang
• Nuthatch
• Gurney’s pitta (Hydrornis gurneyi)

Reptiles

Snakes …
Thailand has approximately 175 species of snake, including:

• King cobra (Ophiophagus hannah)
• Burmese python (Python bivittatus)
• Reticulated python (Python reticulatus)
• Oriental whip snakes (Ahaetulla prasina)
• Golden tree snake (Chrysopelea ornata ornatissima)
• Copperheaded racer (Coelognathus radiatus)
• Monocled cobra (Naja kaouthia)
• Malayan pit viper (Calloselasma rhodostoma)
• White-lipped pit viper (Cryptelytrops albolabris)

Lizards …
Thailand has approximately 112 species of lizard, including:

• Water monitor (Varanus salvator)
• Garden fence lizard (Calotes versicolor)
• Streamside skink (Sphenomortus maculatus)
• Blue crested lizard (Calotes mystaceus)
• Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko)