Kui Buri National Park

Renowned as the premier spot for wild elephant watching in Thailand, Kui Buri National Park offers an impressive 95% chance of sighting these magnificent creatures in its dedicated wildlife viewing area.

Kui Buri National Park was established in 1999 and spans an area of 969 km² in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, situated approximately 85 km southwest of the popular tourist destination Hua Hin.

The park’s mountainous terrain is part of the Tenasserim Hills Range, which extends across several protected areas in both Thailand and Myanmar. The forest within the park comprises both dry and moist evergreen forests, featuring tree species such as Dipterocarpus tuberculatus, Hopea odorata, Terminalia chebula, and various species of palms.

The national park is home to one of the biggest populations of gaurs in Thailand, with estimated around 100 individuals and around 320 elephants. Apart from Asian elephants and gaurs, the other relatively common mammals are golden jackals, various deer, langurs, white-handed gibbons, Burmese hares, Malayan porcupines and wild boars. Other interesting but rare mammals are tigers, leopards, bantengs, Malayan tapirs and dholes (Asiatic wild dogs).

Kui Buri has a rich fauna of birds with over 260 species currently reported from the park, there are probably many more to be found. Crested firebacks, grey peacock-pheasants, ferruginous partridges, Tickell’s brown hornbills, white-crowned hornbills, brown fish owls, yellow-vented green pigeons, white-fronted scops owls, moustached hawk-cuckoos, rufous-collared kingfishers, blue-rumped parrots, chestnut-naped forktails, red-bearded bee-eaters, maroon woodpeckers, rufous-winged philentomas, spectacled spiderhunters, spot-necked babblers, moustached babblers and many more have been recorded from the park. Cattle egrets are seen daily around elephant herds. Other more common birds are red junglefowls, Indochinese rollers and Asian openbills.

Of the around 60 known reptile species found in the park are few interesting ones; red-headed kraits (Bungarus flaviceps), the southern variation of Pope’s pit vipers (Trimeresurus popeiorum), dog-toothed cat snakes (Boiga cynodon), blunt-headed tree snakes (Aplopeltura boa), brown kukri snakes (Oligodon purpurascens), Indochinese ground snakes (Gongylosoma scriptum), speckle-headed whip snakes (Ahaetulla fasciolata), Drapiez’s cat snakes (Boiga drapiezii), roughneck monitors (Varanus rudicollis), elongated tortoises (Indotestudo elongata), Burmese green lizards (Bronchocela burmana) and Malayan softshell turtles (Dogania subplana).