Namdapha’s extraordinary diversity of animal life would fill several volumes. Apart from the altitudinal range and resulting habitat diversity, it is Namdapha’s location that makes it among the most faunally diverse areas in the world. The area is situated at the edge of the tropics, and is unique in having animals from two faunally very distinct biogeographic zones – the Indo-Malayan and the Palaearctic. Species from the Indo-Malayan area, like the clouded leopard, White-winged Wood Duck and king cobra occur in the lower and mid-elevations; the high altitude fauna is predominantly Palaearctic, and is represented by species such as musk deer and Tibetan Siskin.

And the diversity is overwhelming. Spiders, scorpions, butterflies and other insects occur in a mind-boggling variety of shapes, sizes and colours. The rivers and streams teem with fish, from minuscule finger-sized fry darting about in the stiller waters to massive moustached catfish hiding below boulders on the river bottom.

Frogs, ranging from dull cryptic species to strikingly patterned ones, inhabit almost every puddle and waterfall. Poking through the thick leaf litter and turning over rocks reveals more surprises – a brilliant skink, orange, gold and blue flees on being approached, while a red-necked keelback glides through the fallen debris, and in the hollow bamboo, a Medo’s pit viper waits sleepily for the coming of spring.

Huge flocks of birds, sometimes of over a hundred individuals of up to twenty species work their way through the undergrowth and the lower crowns of trees. An encounter with one of these flocks leaves even the most experienced bird watchers stunned with its speed and complexity. A group of Snowy-throated Babblers chatter noisily in the bamboo and in the canopy, Grey-headed Parrotbills keep company with Sultan Tits and Beautiful Nuthatches. A pair of Rufous-necked Hornbills fly over the trees like miniature bombers, air whooshing beneath labouring wings.

The mammals that can usually be seen are the hoolocks, capped langur and several of the diurnal squirrel species, apart from the occasional barking deer and yellow-throated marten, or a pack of wild dogs out hunting the sambar deer. Most other mammals are not sighted often but coming upon a troop of stump-tailed macaques or even a lone serow is not impossible.

This section deals with the diversity of animal life found in Namdapha. Bugs, worms, lizards, birds, large cats and rodents all feature on these pages. It showcases not just the more charismatic species like large mammals and butterflies, but also the more secretive and poorly known life forms, although information on some groups is incomplete and remains limited.