Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) Two back to back guided trips to the southern Western Ghats, in late October and November this year, revealed much of the region’s specialities, including Lion-tailed Macaque (including those raiding coffee berries), Nilgiri Tahr, Nilgiri Langur, Great Pied Hornbill (in a dwindled annual congregation around Valparai), Grey Slender Loris, Brown PalmContinue reading “Western Ghats Endemics, October and November 2025: Trips summary”
Tag Archives: Wildlife
Primates, Mainland Leopard Cat and Flying Squirrels aplenty: Eaglenest and Assam, Spring 2025
Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) Dates 23rd Feb to 8th March 2025 Locations Visited Kakaijona; Manas NP; Eaglenest WLS; Kaziranga NP and Hollongappar Gibbon WLS Tour Participants Clients: Jannis Göttling and Heike Göttling Naturalist: Ravi Kailas A natural history oriented visit to the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary and the Assam Plains produced 31 species of identifiable mammalsContinue reading “Primates, Mainland Leopard Cat and Flying Squirrels aplenty: Eaglenest and Assam, Spring 2025”
Endemic Mammals and Birds: Western Ghats, February 2025
Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) Dates 1st to 11th Feb 2025 Locations Visited Valaparai (Anamalai Tiger Reserve); Chinnar WLS; Eravikulam WLS (and surroundings); Thekkady (Periyar Tiger Reserve) Tour Participants Clients: James and Jill Hammersley Naturalist: Ravi Kailas A 10 night visit to the southern Western Ghats turned out to be interesting for a gamut of itsContinue reading “Endemic Mammals and Birds: Western Ghats, February 2025”
Endemic Primates, Brown Palm Civet and More: Western Ghats, January 2025
Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) Dates 26th to 31st January 2025 Locations Visited Valparai (Anamalai Tiger Reserve); Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary; Eravikulam National Park (and surroundings) Tour Participants Clients: Elias Filho, Flavio Coutrin, Ana Camargo, Waldir Carvalho, Monica Vale and Milton Filho Naturalists: Ravi Kailas and Ganesh Ramachandran A brief, mammal-watching focussed effort in the southern WesternContinue reading “Endemic Primates, Brown Palm Civet and More: Western Ghats, January 2025”
Brown Palm Civet, Brown Mongoose and Lion-tailed Macaque: Western Ghats Feb 2024
Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) A brief mammal-watching oriented visit to the southern Western Ghats produced 27 species of mammals, including many of the ecoregion’s specialities, namely Lion-tailed Macaque, Nilgiri Langur, Nilgiri Tahr, Brown Palm Civet, Nilgiri Striped Squirrel and Brown Mongoose (seen only by me and Kumaraswamy). Sightings also included Leopard, Gaur, Indian Chevrotain, NilgiriContinue reading “Brown Palm Civet, Brown Mongoose and Lion-tailed Macaque: Western Ghats Feb 2024”
Lion-tailed Macaque, Indian Porcupine and Wayanad Laughingthrush, Western Ghats, Feb 2024: Trip Report
Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) Dates 1st to 5th February 2024 Participants Client: Hugh Lansdown (For a trip report from Hugh Lansdown and for much other interesting content please follow this link which leads to his informative website with quality wildlife images and reports from across the globe) Naturalist: Ravi Kailas Locations Visited Kabini (Nagarhole TigerContinue reading “Lion-tailed Macaque, Indian Porcupine and Wayanad Laughingthrush, Western Ghats, Feb 2024: Trip Report”
Western and Central India Dec 2023 – raining cats and dogs: Trip Report
Pictures: Jannis Göttling Text: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) A natural history oriented guided tour to Western (primarily) and Central (an aside) India, proved extremely productive for the diversity (and quality of sightings) of mammals and birds, many of them regional specialities and on the pre-tour wish list. Asiatic Wild Cat, Tiger, Leopard, Asiatic Lion, Indian Wolf,Continue reading “Western and Central India Dec 2023 – raining cats and dogs: Trip Report”
Biodiverse Costa Rica, April 2023
Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) Dates 16th to 23rd April 2023 Locations visited Arenal Volcano, La Selva Biological Reserve, Monteverde, San Gerardo De Dota “The diversity was striking”, was the first response I had for anyone asking about my (what turned out to be) an all too brief, natural history oriented visit to sample of CostaContinue reading “Biodiverse Costa Rica, April 2023”
One Spring morning at NYC’s Central Park
Author: Ravi Kailas Having missed several opportunities to get the best of Spring migration birding when I lived in the US in the early 2000s, I was very keen to experience at least one hotspot, when I visited in April this year. Sadly, I could only dedicate a couple of hours one early April morningContinue reading “One Spring morning at NYC’s Central Park”
Striped Hyena, Indian Wolf and Asiatic Lion, Gujarat, Feb 2023: Trip Report
Author: Ravi Kailas (ficustours@gmail.com) Dates 16th to 22rd March 2023 Itinerary Outline Day 1, Wild Ass Sanctuary, Little Rann of Kutch Days 2, 3 & 4, Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar Days 5 & 6, Gir National Park Day 7, Transfer from Rajkot Airport Tour Participants Anand Ramesh, Ramesh Venkateswaran and Padmini Ramesh – very keenContinue reading “Striped Hyena, Indian Wolf and Asiatic Lion, Gujarat, Feb 2023: Trip Report”
Ficus Wildlife and Natural History Tours 