Wildlife

Nowhere in the world is there a transition of flora and fauna so abrupt as the one between the Terai and the Himalayan crest. In a distance of as little as 60km, the terrain passes from steaming jungle through monsoon rainforest and rhododendron highlands to glacial valleys and the high-altitude desert of the Himalayan rain shadow. As a result, Nepal can boast an astounding diversity of life, from rhinos to snow leopards.

Flora

Nepal’s vegetation is largely determined by altitude and can be grouped into three main divisions. The lowlands include the Terai, Churia Hills and valleys up to about 1000m; the midlands extend roughly from 1000m to 3000m; and the Himalayas from 3000m to the upper limit of vegetation (typically about 5000m). Conditions vary tremendously within these zones, however: south-facing slopes usually receive more moisture, but also more sun in their lower reaches, while certain areas that are less protected from the summer monsoon – notably around Pokhara – are especially wet. In general, rainfall is higher in the east, and a greater diversity of plants can be found there.

The Terai Most of what little lowland forest remains in the Terai consists of sal, a tall, straight tree much valued for its wood – a factor which has caused its catastrophic decline outside protected areas. Sal prefers well-drained soils and the purest stands were once found along the Bhabar, the sloping alluvial plain at the base of the foothills; in the lower foothills, stunted specimens are frequently lopped for fodder. In spring, its creamcoloured flowers give off a heady jasmine scent. Other species sometimes associated with sal include saj, a large tree with crocodile-skin bark; haldu, used for making dugout canoes; and bauhinia, a strangling vine that corkscrews around its victims.

The wetter riverine forest supports a larger number of species, but life here is more precarious, as rivers regularly flood and change course during the monsoon. Sisu, related to rosewood, and khair, an acacia, are the first trees to colonize newly formed sandbanks. Simal, towering on mangrove-like buttresses, follows close behind; also known as the silk-cotton tree, it produces bulbous red flowers in February, and in May its seed pods explode with a cottony material that is used for stuffing mattresses. Palash – the “flame of the forest” tree – puts on an even more brilliant show of red flowers in February. All of these trees are deciduous, shedding their leaves during the dry spring. Many other species are evergreen, including bilar, jamun and curry, an understorey tree with thin, pointed leaves that smell just like their name. Grasses dominate less stable wetlands. Of the fifty-plus species native to the Terai, several routinely grow to a height of 8m. Even experts tend to pass off any tall, dense ipi8hfBu+Fu1Tqp6g5eaALs= stand as “elephant grass”, because the only way to get through it is on an elephant (the most common genera are Phragmites, Saccharum, Arundo and Themeda). Most grasses reach their greatest height just after the monsoon and flower during the dry autumn months. Locals cut khar, a medium-sized variety, for thatch in winter and early spring; the official thatch-gathering season in the Terai parks (two weeks in January) is a colourful occasion, although the activity tends to drive wildlife into hiding. Fires are set in March and April to burn off the old growth and encourage tender new shoots, which provide food for game as well as livestock.

The Middle Hills The decline in precipitation from east to west is more marked in the Middle Hills – so much so that the dry west shares few species in common with the moist eastern hills. Central Nepal is an overlap zone where western species tend to be found on southfacing slopes and eastern ones on the cooler northern aspects.

A common tree in dry western and central areas is chir pine (needles in bunches of three), which typically grows in park-like stands up to about 2000m. Various oak species often take over above 1500m, especially on dry ridges, and here you’ll also find ainsilo, a cousin of the raspberry, which produces a sweet, if rather dry, golden fruit in May.

Although much of the primary forest in the wet midlands has been lost to cultivation, you can see fine remnants of it above Godavari in the Kathmandu Valley and around the lakes in the Pokhara Valley. Lower elevations are dominated by a zone of katus (Castanopsis indica or Nepal chestnut) and chilaune (Schima wallichii), the latter being a member of the tea family with oblong concave leaves and, in May, small white flowers. In eastern parts, several species of laurel form a third major component to this forest, while alder, cardamom and tree ferns grow in shady gullies.

The magical, mossy oak-rhododendron forest is still mostly intact above about 2000m, thanks to the prevalent fog that makes farming unviable at this level. Khasru, the predominant oak found here, has prickly leaves and is often laden with lichen, orchids and other epiphytes, which grow on other plants and get their nutrients directly from the air. It’s estimated that more than three hundred orchid varieties grow in Nepal, and although not all are showy or scented, the odds are you’ll be able to find one flowering at almost any time of year. Tree rhododendron (Lali guraas), Nepal’s national flower, grows to more than 20m high and blooms with gorgeous red or pink flowers in March and April. Nearly thirty other species occur in Nepal, mainly in the east – the Milke Danda, a long ridge east of the Arun River, is the best place to view rhododendron, although impressive stands can also be seen between Ghodapani and Ghandrung in the Annapurna region. Most of Nepal’s three hundred species of fern are found in this forest type, as are many medicinal plants whose curative properties are known to ayurvedic practitioners but have yet to be studied in the West. Also occurring here are lokta, a small bush with fragrant white flowers in spring, whose bark is pulped to make paper, and nettles, whose stems are used by eastern hill-dwellers to make a hard-wearing fabric.

Holly, magnolia and maple may replace oak and rhododendron in some sites. Dwarf bamboo, the red panda’s favourite food, grows in particularly damp places, such as northern Helambu and along the trail to the Annapurna Sanctuary. Cannabis thrives in disturbed sites throughout the midlands – including beside roads and paths, handily enough.

The Himalayas Conifers form the dominant tree cover in the Himalayas. Particularly striking are the forests around Rara Lake in western Nepal, where Himalayan spruce and blue pine (needles grouped in fives) are interspersed with meadows. Elsewhere in the west you’ll find magnificent Himalayan cedar (deodar) trees, which are protected by villagers, and a species of cypress. Two types of juniper are present in Nepal: the more common tree-sized variety grows south of the main Himalayan crest (notably ipi8hfBu+Fu1Tqp6g5eaALs= around Tengboche in the Everest region), while a dwarf scrub juniper is confined to northern rain-shadow areas. Both provide incense for Buddhist rites. In wetter areas, hemlock fir (distinguished from spruce by its upward-pointing cones) and even the deciduous larch may be encountered.

One of the most common (and graceful) broadleafed species is white birch, usually found in thickets near the tree line, especially on shaded slopes where the snow lies late. Shivery poplars stick close to watercourses high up into the inner valleys – Muktinath is full of them – while berberis, a shrub whose leaves turn scarlet in autumn, grows

widely on exposed sites. Trekking up the Langtang or Marsyangdi valleys you pass through many of these forest types in rapid succession, but the most dramatic transition of all is found in the valley of the Thak Khola (Upper Kali Gandaki): the monsoon jungle below Ghasa gives way to blue pine, hemlock, rhododendron and horse chestnut; then to birch, fir and cypress around Tukche; then the apricot orchards of Marpha; and finally the blasted steppes of Jomosom.

Alpine vegetation predominates on the forest floor and in moist meadows above the tree line, and – apart from the dwarf rhododendron (some species of which give off a strong cinnamon scent and are locally used as incense) – many flowers found here will be familiar to European and North American walkers. There are too many to do justice to them here, but primula, buttercup, poppy, iris, larkspur, gentian, edelweiss, buddleia, columbine and sage are all common. Most bloom during the monsoon, but rhododendrons and primulas can be seen flowering in the spring and gentians and larkspurs in the autumn.

Mammals

Most of Nepal’s rich animal life inhabits the Terai and, despite dense vegetation, is most easily observed there. Along the trekking trails of the hills, wildlife is much harder to spot due to population pressure, while very few mammals live above the tree line. The following overview progresses generally from Terai to Himalayan species, and focuses on the more charismatic or visible animals – anyone interested in identifying some of Nepal’s 55 species of bats or eight kinds of flying squirrel will need a specialist guide.

The Asian one-horned rhino (gaida) is one of five species found in Asia and Africa, all endangered, and all at risk from poaching. In Nepal, about five hundred rhinos, or a quarter of the species total, live in Chitwan – something of a success story. Forty-eight were introduced to Bardia, but only half have survived the period of instability. Rhinos graze singly or in small groups in the marshy elephant grass, where they can remain surprisingly well hidden.

Although trained elephants (hatti) remain important to Nepali culture, their wild relatives are seen only rarely in Nepal by tourists – though they kill literally dozens of Nepalis every year, especially near the eastern border, where hundreds of wild elephants roam between Nepal and India. Since elephants require vast territory for their seasonal migrations, the settling of the Terai is putting them in increasing conflict with humankind. More than half of Nepal’s resident wild elephants, some eighty animals or so, are found in Bardia National Park; Chitwan has another thirty or so.

Koshi Tappu is the only remaining habitat in Nepal for another species better known as a domestic breed, wild buffalo (arnaa), some two hundred of which graze the wet grasslands there in small herds. Majestic and powerful, the gaur (gauri gaai), or Indian bison, spends most of its time in the dry lower foothills, but descends to the Terai in spring for water.

Perhaps the Terai’s most unlikely mammals, gangetic dolphins – one of four freshwater species in the world – are present in increasingly small numbers in the Karnali and Sapt Koshi rivers (see box, p.292). Curious and gregarious, they tend to congregate in deep channels where they feed on fish and crustaceans, and betray their presence with a blow-hole puff when surfacing. ipi8hfBu+Fu1Tqp6g5eaALs=

The most abundant mammals of the Terai, chital, or spotted deer, are often seen in herds around the boundary between riverine forest and grassland. Hog deer – so called because of their porky little bodies and head-down trot – take shelter in wet grassland, while the aptly named barking deer, measuring around half a metre high at the shoulder, are found throughout lowland and midland forests. Swamp deer gather in vast herds in Sukla Phanta, and males of the species carry impressive sets of antlers (their Nepali name, barhasingha, means “twelve points”). Sambar, heavy-set animals standing 1.5m at the shoulder, are more widely distributed, but elusive. Two species of

antelope, the graceful, corkscrew-horned blackbuck and the ungainly nilgai (blue bull), may be seen at Bardia and Koshi Tappu respectively; the latter was once assumed to be a form of cattle, and thus spared by Hindu hunters, but no longer.

Areas of greatest deer and antelope concentrations are usually prime territory for the endangered Bengal tiger (bagh). However, your chances of spotting one of Nepal’s hundred-odd tigers on the average visit to a National Park are exceedingly slim, and not just because they’re rare: they’re mainly nocturnal, and incredibly stealthy. In the deep shade and mottled sunlight of dense riverine forest, a tiger’s orange- and black-striped coat provides almost total camouflage. A male may weigh 250kg and measure 3m from nose to tail. Tigers are solitary hunters; some have been known to consume up to twenty percent of their body weight after a kill, but they may go several days between feeds. Males and females maintain separate but overlapping territories, regularly patrolling them, marking the boundaries with scent and driving off interlopers. Some Nepalis believe tigers to be the unquiet souls of the deceased.

Leopards (chituwa) are equally elusive, but much more widely distributed: they may be found in any deep forest from the Terai to the timber line. As a consequence, they account for many more maulings in Nepal than tigers, and are more feared. A smaller animal (males weigh about 45kg), they prey on monkeys, dogs and livestock. Other cats – such as the fishing cat, leopard cat and the splendid clouded leopard – are known to exist in the more remote lowlands and midlands, but are very rarely sighted. Hyenas and wild dogs are scavengers of the Terai, and jackals, though seldom seen (they’re nocturnal), produce an eerie howling that is one of the most common night sounds in the Terai and hills.

While it isn’t carnivorous, the dangerously unpredictable sloth bear, a Terai species, is liable to turn on you and should be approached with extreme caution. Its powerful front claws are designed for unearthing termite nests, and its long snout for extracting the insects. The Himalayan black bear roams midland forests up to the tree line and is, if anything, more dangerous; some believe the bear is the origin of the Yeti myth (see p.346). Wild boars can be seen rooting and scurrying through forest anywhere in Nepal.

Monkeys, a common sight in the Terai and hills, come in two main varieties in Nepal. The delightful grey langurs have silver fur, black faces and hands, and long, ropelike tails; in forested trekking areas, it’s quite common to see and hear them crashing about in the trees, or sitting around in placid family groups. Nepalis know them as “Hanuman” monkeys, after the monkey god: one story has it that they have been blackened since the fire that singed the monkey god when he tried to rescue Sita from the demon Ravana. Russet-brown rhesus macaques (red monkeys or raato bandar) are more shy in the wild, but around temples are tame to the point of being nuisances. There is a third species, the Assamese macaque, but it’s found only in small populations in remoter areas such as the Langtang region and Makalu-Barun National Park.

Many other small mammals may be spotted in the hills, among them porcupines, flying squirrels, foxes, civets, otters, mongooses and martens. The red panda, with its rust coat and bushy, ringed tail, almost resembles a tree-dwelling fox; like its Chinese relative, it’s partial to bamboo, and is very occasionally glimpsed in the cloud forest of northern Helambu. Elusive animals of the rhododendron and birch forests, musk deer are readily identified by their tusk-like canine teeth; males are hunted for their musk pod, just one of which ipi8hfBu+Fu1Tqp6g5eaALs= can fetch well over $100 on the black market. Though by no means common, Himalayan tahr is the most frequently observed large mammal of the high country; a goat-like animal with long, wiry fur and short horns, it browses along steep cliffs below the tree line. Serow, another goat relative, inhabits remote canyons and forested areas, while goral, sometimes likened to chamois, occurs from middle elevations up to the tree line.

The Himalaya’s highest domesticated, or at least semi-domesticated, resident is the yak – true wild yaks are considered extinct in Nepal. While smaller and usually gentler than cows, they look shaggier, tougher, with their long horns, and distinctly more

eccentric. The female is called a nak (giving rise to a popular Nepali joke about what you get if you order yak cheese). The bovines more often seen on trekking paths, however, are the dzopkio (male) and dzum (female) yak-cow crossbreeds, recognizable by their more even temper, forward-curving horns and lowing – yaks can only grunt. The truly wild mammals you’ll most often see above the tree line are blue sheep, or bharal, which graze the barren grasslands year-round. Normally tan, males go a slatey colour in winter, accounting for their name. Herds have been sighted around the Thorung La in the Annapurna region, but they occur in greater numbers north of Dhorpatan and in She-Phoksundo National Park. Their chief predator is the snow leopard, a secretive and beautiful cat whose habits are still little understood. Nepal has a critical population of 350–500 of this globally endangered species.

Amphibians and reptiles

Native to the Terai’s wetlands, crocodiles are most easily seen in winter, when they sun themselves on muddy banks to warm up their cold-blooded bodies. The endangered mugger crocodile favours marshes and oxbow lakes, where it may lie motionless for hours on end until its prey comes within snapping distance. Muggers mainly pursue fish, but will eat just about anything they can get their jaws around – including human corpses thrown into the river by relatives unable to afford wood for a cremation. The even more endangered gharial crocodile lives exclusively in rivers and feeds on fish (see p.251).

Nepal has many kinds of snakes, but they are rarely encountered: most hibernate in winter, even in the Terai, and shy away from humans at other times of year. Common cobras – snake charmers’ favourites – inhabit low elevations near villages; they aren’t found in the Kathmandu Valley, despite their abundance in religious imagery there. Kraits and pit vipers, both highly poisonous, have been reported, as have pythons up to 6m long. However, the commonest species aren’t poisonous and are typically less than half a metre long.

Chances are you’ll run into a gecko or two, probably clinging to a guesthouse wall. Helpful insect-eaters, these lizard-like creatures are able to climb almost any surface with the aid of suction pads on their feet. About fifty species of fish have been recorded in Nepal, but only mahseer, a sporty relative of carp that attains its greatest size in the lower Karnali River, is of much interest; most ponds are stocked with carp and catfish.

Birds

More than eight hundred bird species – one-tenth of the earth’s total – have been sighted in Nepal. The country plays host to a high number of birds migrating between India and central Asia in spring and autumn and, because it spans so many ecosystems, provides habitats for a wide range of year-round residents. The greatest diversity of species is found in the Terai wildlife parks, but even the Kathmandu Valley is remarkably rich in birdlife. The following is only a listing of the major categories – for the complete picture, get hold of Birds of Nepal (see p.426).

In the Terai and lower hills, raptors (birds of prey) such as ospreys, cormorants, darters, gulls and kingfishers patrol streams and rivers for food; herons and storks can also be seen fishing, while cranes, ducks and moorhens wade in or float on the water. ipi8hfBu+Fu1Tqp6g5eaALs= Many of these migratory species are particularly well represented at Koshi Tappu, which is located along the important Arun Valley corridor to Tibet. Peafowl make their meowing mating call – and peacocks occasionally deign to unfurl their plumage – while many species of woodpeckers can be heard, if not seen, high up in the sal canopy. Cuckoos and “brain fever” birds repeat their idiotic two- or four-note songs in an almost demented fashion. Parakeets swoop in formation; bee-eaters, swifts, drongos, swallows and rollers flit and dive for insects, while jungle fowl look like chickens as Monet might have painted them. Other oddities of the Terai include the paradise

flycatcher, with its lavish white tail feathers and dragonfly-like flight; the lanky great adjutant stork, resembling a prehistoric reptile in flight; and the giant hornbill, whose beak supports an appendage that looks like an upturned welder’s mask.

Many of the above birds are found in the midlands as well as the Terai – as are mynas, egrets, crows and magpies, which tend to scavenge near areas of human habitation. Birds of prey – falcons, kestrels, harriers, eagles, kites, hawks and vultures – may also be seen at almost any elevation. Owls are common, but not much liked by Nepalis. Babblers and laughing thrushes populate the oak-rhododendron forest and are as noisy as their names suggest. More than twenty species of flycatchers are present in the Kathmandu Valley alone.

Nepal’s national bird, the iridescent, multicoloured danphe (impeyan pheasant), can often be spotted scuttling through the undergrowth in the Everest region. Kalij and monal, two other native pheasants, also inhabit the higher hills and lower Himalayas. Migrating waterfowl often stop over at high-altitude lakes – ruddy shelducks are a trekking-season attraction at Gokyo – and snow pigeons, grebes, finches and choughs may all be seen at or above the tree line. Mountaineers have reported seeing choughs at up to 8200m on Everest, and migrating bar-headed geese are known to fly over Everest.

Invertebrates and insects

Perhaps no other creature in Nepal arouses such squeamishness as the leech (jukha). Fortunately, these segmented, caterpillar-sized annelids remain dormant underground during the trekking seasons; during the monsoon, however, they come out in force everywhere in the Terai and hills, making any hike a bloody business. Leeches are attracted to body heat, and will inch up legs or drop from branches to reach their victims. The bite is completely painless – the bloodsucker injects a local anaesthetic and anticoagulant – and often goes unnoticed until the leech drops off of its own accord. Removing them, however, can be tricky (see p.40).

More than six hundred species of butterflies have been recorded in Nepal, with more being discovered all the time. The monsoon is the best time to view butterflies – in fact, they provide a reason in themselves for a visit in that season – but many varieties can be seen before and especially just after the rains: look beside moist, sandy banks or atop ridges; Phulchoki is an excellent place to start in the Kathmandu Valley. Notable hill varieties include the intriguing orange oakleaf, whose markings enable it to vanish into forest litter, and the golden birdwing, a large, angular species with a loping wingbeat. Moths are even more numerous – around five thousand species are believed to exist in Nepal, including the world’s largest, the giant atlas, which has a wingspan of almost 30cm.

Termites are Nepal’s most conspicuous social insects, constructing towering, fluted mounds up to 2.5m tall in the western Terai. Organized in colonies much the same as ants and bees, legions of termite workers and “reproductives” serve a single king and queen. The mounds function as cooling towers for the busy nest below; monuments to insect industry, they’re made from tailings excavated from the colony’s galleries and bonded with saliva for a wood-hard finish. Honey bees create huge, drooping nests in the Terai and especially in the lush cliff country north of Pokhara. Spiders aren’t very numerous in Nepal, although one notable species grows to be 15cm across and nets ipi8hfBu+Fu1Tqp6g5eaALs= birds (it’s not poisonous to humans). Fireflies, with orange and black bodies, give off a greenish glow at dusk in the Terai. For many travellers, however, the extent of their involvement with the insect kingdom will be in swatting mosquitoes: two genera are prevalent in the lowlands, one of them, Anopheles, the infamous vector of malaria.