INDIA: KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK, DAY 1

 December 17, 2024

As I see it, there are five reasons to visit Kaziranga National Park: 1) It has two-thirds of the WORLD'S POPULATION of one-horned rhinos, a vulnerable species; 2) It is a Tiger Reserve; 3) It is an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA); 4) It is a UNESCO World Heritage site; 5) It has elephants. I'll go anywhere that has elephants.

Another reason is that although it isn't a huge park--just 25 miles by 8 miles--it also isn't crowded like some of the bigger parks in Africa. 

We left on our first safari drive at around 2:00 PM after having lunch shortly after we arrived in the park. We would have two more safari drives the next day, then two more on the day after that. Typically the morning drive was 7:00 AM - 12:30 PM, and the afternoon drive was 2:00-5:30 PM. Those times include the driving time from our lodgings to one of the entrances to the park, which ranged from 20 minutes to an hour. In between the two drives we returned to the lodge for a delicious lunch.

It's hard to blog about a safari because it's not a linear experience. We typically saw many of the same sites/animals over and over again, and sometimes we drove in loops. After a while, one area begins to look like another, at least to me. 

However, one thing that continued to surprise us was the use of elephants as transportation on the highway and at other places. These photos were taken through the car windshield, so they aren't the best, but you still get the idea, right?

There are several entrances into the reserve, and this is the first one we took. The little white sign under the unreadable green sign says "Kaziranga: 70% of India's wild rhinos call it home."  That is impressive.

They provide a nice photo window where you can pose above seven scary men with big guns who are probably watching for poachers.

Here we go!

Hey! There are our first elephants, a mama and baby near the river!  Then we noticed that Mama had a chain around her back leg that was staked to the ground. Poor elephant.

This monkey didn't want anything to do with us . . . 

Rhesus Macaque

Later on, we saw this fella, but he was content to stay away and hang out in the shadows.

Capped langur

On the other hand, here is our first experience with the Indian Fan Club we didn't know we were going to have. A train of what looked like high school students chugged past, calling out "Hi!" and "Bye!" and looking generally excited to see us.

We started to see a variety of animal life not too far from the entrance gate. This is a male hog deer.

Further in we saw a wide range of ages and both male and female hog deer.

Like just about every safari guide we've had, ours had amazing spotting abilities and could pick out birds and animals in distant trees.

Scarlet minivet - male

Scarlet minivet - female

Asian barred owl

Black giant squirrel

Are those black splotches in the tree some kind of big seed pods or parasitic moss?

Ew, no! They are Indian flying foxes (bats) that were up too late terrorizing the park and were now taking their morning nap.

Yeah, yeah. Birds hang out on the phone wires at home too.

But they aren't Alexandrine parrots.

Jostling along in a Jeep is a lot more romantic than it sounds. Our bottoms were sore after a while and we needed to walk around, so our guide and driver stopped at this caretaker's building for a stretch. 

I haven't seen a tree that grows ladders before.

Some of our fans asked to take a photo with us. 

Back on the road, we saw a black giant squirrel and a crested serpent-eagle:

Rhesus macaques:

One of the main reasons we had traveled to Kaziranga was because of  #2: High Density Of Royal Bengal Tiger. Bob really had his hopes up for a sighting. SPOILER ALERT: We didn't see one.

We stopped at a view area where we seemed to be the only non-natives:

Babar and his court were enjoying lunch nearby.

Our best moment of the day has to have been being charged by a mama rhino guarding her baby. She snorted like a freight train and came charging up the bank towards our Jeep. Our driver gunned the engine to escape her wrath. 

Later on we saw a different pair, but this baby was much older and could take care of itself.

I have a slew of photos of the one-horned rhinos. There will be more on other days. There were SO MANY.

I love this pond where the rhinos walked along skimming plants from the water's surface. The best scene here was a mama rhino with what our guide said was a two-day-old baby who stayed close to her as she waded in the water eating the lilies. We were worried she might drown, but Mama didn't seem concerned.

There was plenty of food to go around:

Rhinos hide looks like prehistoric body armor, like something you'd see in a Lord of the Rings movie.

The rhinos didn't seem at all bothered that they had to share the space.

Grey-headed eagle

Woolly-necked stork

There were no zoo bars between us, no animal trainer nearby as we approached this huge specimen grazing alongside the road.

Note the blunted horn, like someone had sawed the top off. Maybe poachers got it, or maybe he lost it in a fight. Can you see his tongue?

Well, time to call it a day.

When we got back to our lodgings, the camp had a roaring fire in the dining area. We grabbed our plates and sat down near its warmth.

After dinner we made our way across the lighted bamboo bridge that crossed the lily-filled pond and led to our cabins . . . 

. . . listening to the twanging singing voices of women sitting in a hut in the middle of the swamp. Listen to them here.