We moved house again……

My partner and I are now living in a different part of Thailand and of course a new house and a new area means new wildlife to find.

Our weekends have been busy so far since we moved which hasn’t left much time for finding wildlife but luckily our new garden has provided quite a few cool animals to see especially at night.

One of the first things I noticed about our new garden was how beautiful the geckos were. Seriously, these little guys are so extraordinary here! After a little research I found out that they are a new species I’ve never seen before.(Awesome!) They are called,  The Siamese Leaf-toed Geckos (Dixonius siamensis)I found these psychedelic caterpillars one night on a palm tree at the front of the house. I snapped a few shots and called it a night. When I put the pictures the pictures on my computer I noticed the cute little face looking right back at me. How awesome is this little fella?….I’ve also discovered that we have a couple of resident vinegaroons/ whip scorpions behind our house. Despite their pretty fearsome appearance these guys aren’t venomous and are good at keeping cockroach populations down so I’m pretty chuffed about having them around.Along with the usual banded bullfrogs and asian common toads that inhabit most Thai gardens our new garden seems to be home to a healthy population of Asian Grass Frogs (Fejervarya limnocharis).The roads in the neighbourhood have also proved to be a good place to look for wildlife and I quite often jump on my bike and cruise up and down the roads scanning the verges with my flashlight as I go.

I quite often see a scorpion or two on the road looking for wildlife.Recently I’ve seen quite a few of my least favourite Thai invertebrate, the giant centipede. This particular one was so big that at first sight, I thought it was a small snake! I circled around and to my horror discoverd this 25cm plus specimen feeding on some insect roadkill.I keep spotting these giant centipedes everywhere now, this one appeared as I lifted some old sheet metal looking for snakes and geckos. *shivers*The highlight of all the road searching has to be this Banded Kukri Snake (Oligodon fasciolatus) that I spotted on my first night out.  It was in the middle of the road and I had to act fast before it ended up flat like so many of the other snakes I see. I had to direct traffic around it using my torch and then once there was a gap in the road I had to carefully shepherd it off the road to safety. (Use your imagination. Farang, night-time, using a flash light to help a snake cross the road).That’s the end of my first blog, in the new house. Not too shabby, the wildlife seems to find us here. Some of it better than others………bloody centipedes!

I wanna hear from some of you. What’s the creepiest wildlife encounter that you’ve had, be it in Thailand, at home or in a foreign land. Share your story in the comment section or you can share your story/ photos with me over at Wild Thailand. The best ones get a mention in my next blog.