Nepal is known for its abundant biodiversity*. For being a small country the size of 6 Rhode Islands it spans an elevation range of almost zero (59m) to 8,848 meters (that would be Mount Everest - the highest point in the world)! Much of its land is tropical or subtropical and its central location in Asia serves as a migration destination for many birds, which helps to explain this. You can find almost 9% of the world's bird species here!
Animals have always fascinated me. Nepal is home to many exotic species -- and a lot of threatened ones at that: the Ganges river dolphin, red panda, rhinoceros, elephant, tiger, and snow leopard, to name a few. Although my chances of seeing any of these charismatic megafauna at site are pretty much zero, I am happy to report that there is still plenty to marvel at. Here's what I have seen out and about in the village.
*It was not known to me when I applied to serve here, but I was delighted to discover this after my arrival.
My trusty identification guides bought in the capitol.
MAMMALS
Mammals make up probably the smallest percentage of the wildlife I see, surprisingly. According to my mammal book a variety of animals live in the jungled hills around my village: felines, canines, civets, porcupines, boars, cervids, foxes, mustelids, bats... That being said, however, most of these animals live in the jungle and stay there. Some of them might venture into the village on occasion, but this would be at night when the lights are out and villagers are asleep.
Mongoose are fairly common and seeing them scurrying past is a delight every time. Unfortunately they are a menace to villagers due to their propensity to steal eggs and chicks. Three chicks at our house got carried off by a mongoose a week ago, in fact. I have a lot of respect for these ones regardless for their intelligence and vigilance. They are wily, fast, and fun to watch.
A snapshot of a mongoose that I took through my binoculars. I staked out this spot for an hour or two watching mongoose come by to pick over slaughtered chicken remains one morning.
I have on two occasions heard (but not seen!) what were likely leopards that came for a night visit. (The first time it made a great racket trying to break in to our goat shed -- I woke up irritated at whatever the @$#! my host father was doing in the middle of the night, turned over and went back to sleep... then found out in the morning that it was, in fact, not my host father that I had heard, but a hungry leopard).
Compared to leopards monkeys are a fairly common sight around the village. They are typically assaulted by anyone who sees them with aggressive shouting, chasing, and rock-throwing. And for good reason - they peruse the villages for easy meals and eat almost everything. Their indiscriminate penchant for theft and destruction cuts into farmers' stomachs and their profits. I said mongoose were menaces, but monkeys are a huge threat to food security here, especially for poorer folk who live on the outskirts of settlements and near the jungles. It's a country-wide problem.
Mammals I have identified at site:
- Small Indian mongoose
- Rhesus macaque
- Irrawaddy squirrel
- Asian house shrew
- Langur*
*There are, according to my Nepal mammals book, two species of langur that are perhaps difficult to distinguish from each other and have overlapping ranges, so I'm not sure which I have seen.
A rhesus macaque cautiously appraising me as I walk to a neighboring village.
I passed it and its troupe in the jungle a few days ago.
INSECTS
While I have much respect for insects, I don't have enough interest (or a good enough camera) to be able to capture and identify them. (Though volunteer Mark's mother is a retired entomologist, so sometimes we send him photos of insects to search for and identify for us. This will become relevant later.)
I find myself spending a lot of time admiring the insects I come across. The other day I noticed a dragonfly laying eggs at a waterfall in the jungle; had never seen that before. On more than one occasion I have stooped to watch lines of ants following their formless chem trails across the steps and stones of the villages... reveling in the serenity of the moment. And there are soooooo many beautiful butterflies that can be seen in so many colors and forms. The diversity and beauty of the insects here is stunning. Beetles, flies, dragonflies, bees, bugs, snake flies, praying mantids, katydids, grasshopppers/locusts, walking sticks... yes, even the spiders.
My favorite insect here has got to be jumping spider ant-mimics. (I am not sure if they can truly jump as their name would imply, but they are in the jumping spider family nonetheless). I spotted these early on during pre-service training and was shocked the first time I came across one. You have to wonder how many hundreds of thousands of years they took to evolve.
Ant-mimic spiders are quite small. This probably just looks like an ant to you and to most people who see them.
Photo credit to my friend Colton.
Does it look like an ant now? How cool is this guy?! (Super. Don't argue with me!!)My least favorite is also a kind of spider. This would be the up-to palm-sized Huntsman spiders that occasionally share my room space. I will not disparage them without cause... but I will say I would not mind whatsoever to develop a sudden and selective blindness for them.
I do have one story to tell about trying to identify an evasive insect. A few months after my initial arrival at site I was taking the goats out with buwaa when I saw what I thought was a giant flying insect sucking the blood of the leg of one of our goats with a proboscis several inches long. I was absolutely mortified... but also fascinated. So naturally the first thing I did was ask my friend Mark if he could help me identify it based on my description and a poorly drawn reconstruction. (He couldn't).
Fast forward a year later and I saw the insect -- again! I was elated to know that I did, in fact, not dream up this grotesque nightmare creature. I was in the jungle with farmers at the time when one started hovering by us. The farmers tried to swat it dead as it buzzed round, apparently eyeing us -- more likely, our blood. They said that it is painful when it bites and they told me that this insect's name is दाँस -- daas. Surely a local name but a name nonetheless. They couldn't tell me much else.
I asked around until someone mentioned it in relation to horseflies. That turned out to be the crucial piece of information I needed as I turned to Google and began to sleuth.
That night I learned a lot about horseflies. It took some slogging but I eventually did find what I believe is this insect's genus. And a contender for its species as well: Philoliche longirostris! It struck me how I could, after a few hours, find information about this not-well studied, yet documented, wild, bloodsucking horsefly that I stumbled across in the Nepali jungle. Apparently they habit areas of water and moist soil and are only prevalent in July, August and September. That explained why I saw it once and not again for the next year. They have co-evolved and specialized to feed on a specific species of flower. However, the females require a blood meal to reproduce (it's the protein in blood they need) similar to mosquitoes. Really interesting. I found myself, in my stupor, getting familiar with some horsefly anatomy...
I was also unfortunate enough to get pricked by one a week or two later. Can confirm it is an unpleasant experience.
Behold: the bloodsucking Philoliche spp. of the Nepali jungles! (cue 1960s horror flick damsel in distress scream)
REPTILES
Snakes abound though I have not seen many. Generally, when someone sees a snake in the village proper, frantic yelling, the calling of elder men, and the subsequent death of the snake, ensues. They can get sizable, although according to my host family there is only one in the area that is venomous enough to be a serious danger -- it is bright green and camouflages perfectly in the grass. I have since forgotten which species this is but I have not seen it. (I will say that someone did get bit by one in the fields several months ago and had to visit the hospital. He was alright after.)
Lizards are an occasional sighting. During the warmer months geckos sometimes crawl around the walls of my room or window looking for snacks. I'm quite fond of them. And there are other species of lizards as well but a somewhat rare sighting.
AMPHIBIANS
Lots of toads during the rainy season. Some as big as my palm and others as small as a fingernail. Small frogs are also fairly common throughout the year.
A rather stoic toad. Photo credit to my friend Colton.
BIRDS
Birds! There are so many birds in my village and the birdscape changes with the seasons. I was startled to see Egyptian vultures soaring the canyons coming out of my first winter here. Now that summer is past they have started to dissipate with the onset of the fall season. And only recently I noticed that I no longer wake up to the wooden krok-ok-ok, krok-ok-ok of blue-throated barbets, which somewhat gratingly permeated the airspace for the muggy summer months. I remember getting tired of their calls, but now, in their absence, look forward to hearing them again.
The excitement of seeing a bird you don't know is captivating. It is also frustrating when you get home to review a combination of faulty memories, blurry photos, and several pages of bird species with seemingly identical morphology. That happens a lot, so for every bird I am able to identify there are probably 3 or 4 I have seen that I have not identified. Birds of prey, for example, are a nearly daily sight, but there are so many that look the same that it is very difficult to pin them down with a species-identification.
As I mentioned before, I was not much of a birder until I came to Nepal. I wasn't really planning on becoming one, but the allure came to me after seeing so many varied and colorful types of birds in the first months of being in country; so I indulged and bought an expensive, but nice, set of binoculars that my family sent over to me in the mail. I suppose I traded one hobby for another: the kalimba that I brought to learn to play has sat virtually untouched. So it goes.
Photos of a bird you take in the field...
...vs. your bird identification guide when you go to look it up.
Birds at site I have been able to identify:
- Red-vented bulbul++
- Himalayan bulbul++
- Black bulbul
- Egyptian vulture
- Blue-throated barbet
- Great barbet!
- Black kite
- Himalayan vulture
- Spotted dove++
- Oriental turtle dove
- Asian koel!
- Collared Scops owl!
- Himalayan swiftlet
- Barn swallow++
- Red-rumped swallow++
- Black-winged cuckooshrike
- Scarlet minivet
- Long-tailed shrike++
- Grey-backed shrike
- Indian golden oriole
- Black drongo++
- Ashy drongo++
- Grey treepie++
- Yellow-billed blue magpie
- Large-billed crow++
- House crow++
- Common tailorbird++
- White-crested laughingthrush
- Rufous-winged fulvetta
- Jungle myna
- Common myna++
- Chestnut starling
- Blue whistling thrush
- Oriental magpie robin
- Common stonechat
- Crimson sunbird
- White-rumped munia++
- Grey wagtail
- Eurasian tree sparrow++
- House sparrow++
++ common resident throughout the year
! identified by sound
Nice. Cool that you get to see all these different animals.
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