Forsyth Lodge - Wildlife Log

The walking safaris have been really successful. The tracks and sign through the jungle and the actual sightings have been really exciting. Gaur, sambar, wild boar, langur, rhesus and chital being regularly seen. On this walk with John Flew and Arthur Wrigley, we had langur and chital alarm calls and found fresh tracks of a female leopard apart from fresh sign of bear both in the Peeliya area and then again in Kharet Nala near the elephant camp. But the most exciting were two encounters with gaur. The first was a small group of two females and a calf drifting back from the open grassland of the submergence area. We immediately sat down behind some dense grass and watched as they walked past us. The mother and calf disappeared but the other female must have noticed something unusual and her behaviour on finding something that could not be identified was really interesting. She kept watching, tuning away and then returning to watch. Finally, she started making the low hoarse call and loud snorting that is their alarm call. The second encounter was with a large bull also wandering up. Once again we sat down and the bull came to within 20 metres of us, saw us sitting, dismissed us as a threat and carried on past utterly unconcerned. Very exciting being that close to so much wild ox!