Page 36 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Phuket

34 ❯❯ Top 10 Phuket Highlights

Exotic Animal Species in
Khao Sok National Park

Tiger
4
Many of Thailand’s 200 to 250
remaining wild tigers are believed to
be living in Khao Sok, although you
are unlikely to catch a glimpse of
one. If you are lucky, however, you
might come across tiger tracks.
Cobras
5
Khao Sok is home to four
different species of cobra – the
Malaysian tapir on the move monocled, spitting, king, and Asian
cobras. The king cobra is the world’s
Malaysian Tapir
1 longest venomous snake, reaching
With its distinctive proboscis,
lengths greater than 16 ft (5 m).
this large-bodied herbivore looks
somewhat like a pig with an ele-
phant’s trunk. The tapir’s black
color provides camouflage, so that,
when it is lying down, the animal
looks like a rock.
Bamboo Rat
2
Sporting short bulky bodies
covered in spiky fur, these noctur-
nal rodents live predomi nantly in
bamboo thickets, as well as in
grasslands and forests. Bamboo
rats have sharp teeth and claws
that are ideally suited to digging
the burrows in which they sleep
during the day.
Striking hornbill, perched in a tree
Barking Deer
3 Hornbill
Also known as muntjac,
these small, brown-haired 6
The hornbill’s dis tinctive
deer have short antlers. yellow/red horn and long down-
Commonly seen in the curved mandible make the bird
park, they are called easily identifiable. Feeding on fruits,
barking deer because berries, insects, small mammals,
they are known to bark and eggs, hornbills often reside in
when they sense dense forests. Many species can be
danger. spotted in Khao Sok National Park.
Tarantula
Barking 7
deer These massive spiders tend to
dwell inside underground burrows.
The ones found in Thailand move fast
and are known to be aggressive, so
give the tarantula plenty of space if
you encounter one in the wild.

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