Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary: Mammals in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh

In my haste to finish the bird element of my India trip report while it was still fresh in the mind I deliberately missed out the mammals we saw. Except Bengal Tiger of course which had to be mentioned!

So this is a catch up of the mammals.

16 species were seen with the biggest numbers and variety being in Kaziranga NP. Here, apart from the aforementioned big cat the main target is Great Indian One-horned Rhino which proved very easy to see. We must have seen c100 including a mating pair. Considering the world population is now c4000 but was down to just 200 at the start of the 20th century they are a great conservation success story. Also in the park we saw 3 species of deer - Swamp Deer, Hog Deer and Red Muntjac (aka Barking Deer), Rhesus Macaque, Wild Pig, Asian Elephant, Water Buffalo and Smooth-coated Otter.

Squirrels accounted for several of the species seen with Malay Giant Squirrel, Orange-bellied Squirrel, Himalayan Ground Squirrel and Five-striped Palm Squirrel. Primates were restricted to just 3 species - the Rhesus Macaque already mentioned plus Holok Gibbon seen distantly in the Mishmi Hills and Capped Langur seen in the Mishmi Hills and also very well at Nameri.