Sources & photo credits

About this guide

A growing, species-first field guide to the wildlife of India: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. This edition lists more than 3,000 species, about 1,000 of them with photographs.

How the species list was built

Each group comes from an open reference list, checked against GBIF records for India (retrieved September 2026):

• Mammals: species the Mammal Diversity Database lists for India.
• Birds: IOC World Bird List species with records in India.
• Reptiles: species whose Reptile Database range includes India.
• Amphibians: a published list of India's amphibians, plus GBIF records.

Species known only from a handful of GBIF records are included as possible vagrants but still need checking, and some may be removed. Domestic animals, fossils and zoo records were left out. Common names follow the same lists; where a species has no English name, its scientific name is shown.

"Found only in India" is based on the range given in those lists and has not yet been assessed for amphibians.

Why there is no conservation status

India does not yet have a national Red List for its vertebrates (one is being prepared), and this guide does not substitute global IUCN categories for a national assessment. So no status label is shown. Many species here are protected under India's Wildlife (Protection) Act regardless.

Reference sources

• Mammal Diversity Database: mammal taxonomy and country ranges (CC BY 4.0)
• IOC World Bird List: bird names and taxonomy
• The Reptile Database: reptile taxonomy and distribution (via Catalogue of Life, CC BY 4.0)
• GBIF · India: occurrence records used to check the lists
• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change: protected areas and wildlife law

Planning a visit

Park entry rules, safari bookings, fees and seasonal closures (many parks close for the monsoon) change often and differ from state to state. Check with the park's own booking site or your operator before you travel rather than relying on the details here.

Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. The species listed for each place are what is realistically possible there, not what you should expect on a given day.

Your plans and sightings

Your trip plan and sightings are saved in this browser, on this device only. We never see them. Clearing your browser data will clear them too, so download the PDF if you want a copy to keep. Email buttons open a draft in your mail app; nothing is sent until you send it.

Photo credits

Photographs come from iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences, or were taken by the Wildlife of Everywhere team. Each one keeps its photographer's name, licence and a link to the original.

Photographs are chosen to show the species clearly, so many were taken elsewhere in its range rather than in India. Tap the i on any photograph to see who took it. The full list is below.

View all photo credits