Common Animals in a Thai Village

As a Peace Corps volunteer, I live in a rural area. One thing that I think is characteristic of any rural area is the presence of animals and livestock. As I rode my bike past the local herd of cows, that are different from cows in the States, I thought about how different the animals are that I encounter on a near daily basis than the animals that I came in contact with regularly in the States. So, here is a short list and some pictures of the animals that are a part of my life in Thailand.

Cows

I’ll start with the cows, that I already mentioned. These aren’t your black-and-white spotted milk cows. These beasts are massive. They have a bony hump on the back of their neck and lots of loose dangly skin, which allows their blood to flow away from their body and be cooled. My favorite memory of these cows is the one time I was on a bus, gazing out of the window, and as we passed a wat, I saw a calf frolicking and chasing a butterfly as the rest of the cows went along munching on grass and cud.

Water Buffalo

Another large animal that I see on my bike rides are water buffalo. These animals are also pretty huge, and most of the ones I see are rather round. I haven’t been particularly close to any of them, but they don’t look that furry. Most of the time I see them, they are grazing down the empty fields in between plantings, but just the other day I saw a single farmer with a plow being pulled by a water buffalo. Kwai, the word for water buffalo, is an insult when applied to people on par with calling someone stupid and slow.

Chickens

These animals actually aren’t all that unusual to me, having lived in Portland, but the prevalence of chickens here nears the level of omnipresent. Also, for people who are not aware, roosters do not just crow in the morning. I’m writing this at noon and I just hear one cry out. Chickens are everywhere. I don’t know how people keep track of them because they are rarely kept in runs or enclosed areas. These chickens are quite truly free range. In fact, I watched an explosion of feathers when one did not get out of the road and path of an oncoming car quickly enough.

Tokay Geckos

Tokay geckos rank among the some of the more obnoxious animals that I’ve encountered. They get their name from the loud, repetitive call they make which. Alternatively, their call can sound like an expletive, which lead to American military members calling them “F*** You” geckos during the Vietnam war. These fellows can get pretty big. The one that I came face to face with when it scurried out from behind my washing machine while I was doing laundry was about 7 or 8 inches long. They have quite beautiful markings, however all the Thai people I’ve talked to about them have warned me that they bite, hard, and don’t let go.

House Geckos

Some of my favorite animals in Thailand are my common house geckos, known in Thai as jing jok. I like them, because even though they sometimes unexpectedly drop from the ceiling onto me, or my computer when I watching a movie, they eat the flying bugs that are constantly in my house. They make little chirping noises like a bird. They also leave poop everywhere; sometimes it feels like they are pooping in specific predetermined places, like your pillow or on your computer but that’s a bit irrational, isn’t it? My memory of these little guys isn’t from Thailand, but rather Fiji, when I was eating dinner by a dim light I looked up and saw probably 50 or 60 geckos hanging out on the ceiling, and I couldn’t stop sneaking glances up at them and their quick, erratic movements.

There are a lot of other animals here, like elephants, tigers, cranes, storks, hornbills, gibbons, monkeys, macaques, tapirs, the list could go on and on, but I don’t see those everyday. I’ve seen most of them, but I’m still holding out for my chance to see a tiger in the wild.