So, we’re officially on holiday here in Thailand and we don’t have to be back at work until next month. This gives us a great opportunity to explore some of the cool, wild places near us. One of these places, Khao Sok National Park blew me away with just how much wildlife there was to see.

We stayed in a place just outside of the park but this didn’t mean that it didn’t have any wildlife, quite the opposite in fact. A river ran through the lodge that was absolutely teeming with wildlife, both inside and out.

I would quite often slowly stroll up and down the river with my camera looking for wildlife and this place never disappointed. Every time I paused to look along the river bank or through the shallows I would spot some form of wildlife. This post will hopefully give you a little taste of just how much wildlife there was. So without further ado here’s my five favourites things that I spotted, in no particular order.

1.Tiger beetles.

These tiny little metallic monsters were whizzing around every pebble on the river bank.2. Damselflies.

It seemed like every stick or rock that protruded out of the water was acting as a landing pad for at least one beautiful damselfly or dragon fly. Some of the beauties where so small they were barely visible and impossible to photograph but I did manage to get a few shots.

3. Loads of Fish

The river was home to quite a few species of fish from small catfish-like things eating algae off the rocks on the river bed to large streamline silver fish cruising the waters looking for a meal.

Possibly the weirdest inhabitants of the river were small freshwater pufferfish that seemed to have a taste for human flesh and would bite you if you ventured into the water. It didn’t help that they were so well camouflaged that you could barely see them. (last two pictures).

4.Snakes

I was even lucky enough to spot two snakes whilst walking up and down the river. The first was a beautiful slender Mountain Bronzeback Tree snake and the second was a considerably larger Javanese rat snake.

5. Loads of Lizards

You could not walk anywhere without spotting a forest lizard perched on a tree, or a small skink scuttering through the leaf litter, and if you were really lucky a gliding lizard flying from tree to tree.

Forests Lizards

Skinks

Gliding Lizards

All of this wildlife and we hadn’t even ventured into the national park yet. This area is definitely worth another visit.