Fauna

During our trip, we were fortunate enough to encounter a variety of fun and exciting animals. The list stands as such:

1 Tiger

3 Rock Pythons (from a distance of not more than 3 feet. Mom was very into the snakes. I am less fond of them, though once I realized that pythons aren’t poisonous, I relaxed somewhat, feeling that I could probably avoid standing still long enough to be squeezed to death.)

Wild Boars (woah, I would NOT want to meet one of those suckers in a dark alley.)

Langur Monkeys (yay!)

Rhesus Monkeys (boo!)

2 Varieties of Crocodiles (one which was fish eating and one even more carnivorous. We viewed from a safe distance. Ugly buggers.)

1 Flock of Wild Peacocks

Gazillions of Other Birds That Often Looked Similar But Were Allegedly Different

4 Kinds of Deer (Spotted, Barking, Sambar, and a fourth I can’t remember but which was utterly unafraid of our jeep and came up and licked my hand.)

2 Mongoose (Mongeese? Mongooses? Anyways, they scuttled across the road in front of our taxi.)

Several Jackals (cute little fox-like beasties that my mom consistently referred to as "hyenas.” Let me assure you all that there were no, I repeat no, hyena sightings on this trip. Thank goodness.)

1 Herd of Wild Elephants (which caused me to have the elephant march song from The Jungle Book movie in my head for hours.)

Many Cute Puppies (too bad they grow up to be so mangy and hideous here.)

1 Cockroach (ewwww—note to self: avoid the Hotel Amar Yatri Niwas in Agra in the future…)

0 Rats (Hooray!)