Khao Sok National Park

White-handed gibbons are dimorphic - they come in either black or tan. They don’t change colors; they are simply born black or born tan. A brother and sister can be different colors. A black female abruptly swung into view. A tan baby was clinging to her tummy. Baby gibbons are so cute that there’s a trade for them among some Thais. They’ll shoot a mother with her baby, hoping that the baby survives the fall. If it doesn’t, they simply look for another pair. Baby gibbons are one of the cutest animal babies in the wild. Uncaring bar owners in Thailand like to dress baby gibbons up in human baby cloths to draw tourists into their establishments. Some tourists, ignorant of the cruel methods used to collect the animals, are lured by these little lovelies.

Once grown however, gibbons in captivity become unruly. Their owners have a problem. You can guess how some of them take care of it. Others take their ‘pets’ to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project on Phuket Island where, hopefully, they can eventually be returned to the wild.

This momma didn’t have to worry about us. She went about her business with baby on board. We’d watch her swing and hold our breaths. We’d watch her jump and it made us very uncomfortable. We all commented to each other how we wished she wouldn’t take so many chances.

The other gibbons seemed to be taunting the macaques. They’d get really close, then the macaques would take chase. Don’t put your money on the macaques. A couple of Tarzan-like swings and Mr. Gibbon is whole tree away. We sat and watched this performance for a long time.

While all of this was going on, Common Flameback woodpeckers were busy chipping away soft bits from the dead trees in the water. Dead trees from the creation of this massive 165 square kilometer are still holding on throughout the reservoir. Flamebacks are marked by vivid golden backs and black and white scaly breasts. Males have a scarlet red crest.

A couple of Dusky langurs were eating leaves in the trees behind the trees with the gibbons and macaques.

Raptors use these trees too. They make great viewing platforms for these predators. A male Crested Serpent Eagle sat proudly on one of the trees in front of us. He was not concerned about us either. I could easily see his scaly feet and talons through my binoculars. Occasionally, we’d make eye contact. I don’t know how the eagle felt, but I was loving it.

A brood of Red Jungle Fowl started clucking to our left. It is believed that these are the chickens from which all of our domestic chickens derive.

The eagle glided over to a different tree. Just below him, a yellow dotted monitor lizard was sprawled out on a limb. The lizard was most likely trying to get warmed up a bit after the previous shower. It was certainly too big for the eagle, so it didn’t even bother to look up

A pair of Blue-eared kingfishers sat waiting for a meal on the lower trees at the water’s edge. There colors were more vibrant than this same species shows in the nearby saltwater Phang Nga Bay for some reason.

Some of the macaques were climbing a very tall palm tree. Most of the berries were gone, but a few remained. Suddenly, a gibbon jumps to the palm. After climbing halfway up, it looked back to see a macaque following. The gibbon went even higher. We thought that it was getting to high to make a safe jump to any of the trees below as the palm was twice as high as the surrounding trees. We all held our breaths. The macaque made its move and the gibbon gracefully slipped around and down. More macaques went up the palm.

The black mother gibbon with baby dangled in a tree near the palm. She jumped to the palm and started slowly scrambling up the tree. "Oh no!", we almost all said together. There are a lot of macaques in that tree. We’ve already seen that gibbons and macaques don’t really get along. We hoped that this wouldn’t mean trouble.

She climbed on. A couple of smaller macaques clambered up behind her. There was nothing we could do. We sincerely hoped for the best. Out of the blue, a big male macaque comes into view. It was hidden in the thick underparts of the palm. We never even noticed him. "This is not good," we thought.

All of our concern ended up being for naught. The black female gibbon just walked right past all of the macaques and took a seat by some palm berries. Who knows why she had such an easy time when all of the other gibbons seemed to be attacked whenever they ventured too close to the macaques. We didn’t understand it, but we’re glad to see that happy ending.

Have you been keeping track of how many animals we had in front of us? They’ve all been there during this whole gibbon/macaque interaction. I’ll help you - Southern Pied hornbills, a Black Giant squirrel, a Crested Serpent eagle, a monitor lizard, Red Jungle Fowl, Blue-eared kingfishers, Common Flameback woodpeckers, a couple of Dusky Langurs, Pig-tailed macaques, and White-handed gibbons. It’s not unusual for Khao Sok, as we normally see this much variety every day. It was unusual that it was all in front of us at once and for a long time.

Our senses fully satisfied, we moved on. Some rain approached from behind us, but I knew it would be a few minutes before it got to us. I looked up in a dead tree and noticed a single bird perched. I got my binoculars focused and saw that it was an Oriental Hobby, a small noble-looking raptor. The curtain of rain drew closer. A Stork-billed kingfisher, with its bright orange breast and deep blue wings, raced across our bows. I tucked my binoculars into the dry bag under the bungy cords on the deck of my kayak. It rained for a while.

We paddled on, enjoying the recent memories that we knew we would remember for a long, long time to come.


(This article is contributed by Paddle Asia - Editor. For more interesting travel articles, please visit InfoHub Specialty Travel Guide)

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