Some of our other freinds

As the dry season advances, we are searching out the few remaining wet areas in the hope of finding rhino footprints. Once we find footprints, we can try to follow them and this should, in theory, lead us to the precious dung. We also wander haphazardly through the forest in the hope of a chance dung encounter, but in general, we feel that targeted searching is more likely to get us the results. In the parts of the forest where there are no wallows, we head for the swamps, or follow streams.

Sarah and Bruiser spent some time in this swamp, where some ethnic minority people were trying to catch fish.

Sarah and Bruiser found some old rhino prints (which Simon had seen back in January), but they didn’t find any dung.

Although the rhinos are proving hard to find, we found plenty of evidence of Gaur. There were footprints and dung close to our camp:

This impromptu streamside wallow (to the left of this picture) had a Guar footprint in it. These wallows are also used extensively by Wild Pig.

Wild Pig foraging signs are easy to detect, both by sight and by their distinctive smell! Nothing is more exciting than a photo of some turned over ground...

Sambar are the largest species of deer in the national park, we sometimes find their prints in wet areas. The smallest deer in the national park are the mouse-deer, or chevrotains. Here is some mouse-deer dung:

Who lives in a house like this? Local people said that this was a porcupine burrow, and they may well be correct, but could it house a pangolin? Or something else…?