Saturday, August 10, 2013

Myanmar Juy – August 2013, Kyaiktiyo Wildlife Sanctuary

Just like our visit to the Moeyungyi Weetlends, our visit to Kyaiktiyo Wildlife Sanctuary was mostly insired by the http://birding.sstmyanmar.com/kyaikhtiyo-wildlife-sanctuary. Mount Kyaiktiyo is mostly famous for its Golden Rock Pagoda at its top, but there are apparently some reasonable forests on the mountain. We based ourselves at Kinpun Base Camp, from which we walked up the mountain on the first day towards the Maha Myaing Paya. First you pass through a lot of cleared forest and later through crappy secondary forest. Here we only found a Black-necked Laugher and some Crested Treeswifts.

The next day we took one of the trucks taking the pilgrims up the mountain in the hope to find better forest at higher altitude. We decided to walk down from the Golden Rock back to Kinpun. First you pass countless vendors, but later there are some patches of secondary forest which contained amongst others Vernal Hanging Parrot, Green-billed Malkoha, Blue-winged Leafbird, Crested Goshawk, Buff-breasted, Puff-throated and Striped Tit Babbler, Lesser Necklaced Laugher, Little Spiderhunter and Lesser Rufous-headed Parrotbill.

Even though we saw some interesting species, I don´t understand why this is a “wildlife sanctuary”. Maybe we did not find the right trails and birded in the wrong places, maybe the time of the year was not right, but in my opinion the human pressure on the forests here seems just too much. It still is an interesting site from a cultural perspective, but the fact that foreigners have to eat and sleep at specially selected places and are completely separated from the local people creates a weird atmosphere.  
Ridiculously large butterfly (Attacus atlas)

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