The habitat of Kerala consists of wet evergreen rainforests at the lower elevations and deciduous semi-evergreen forests in the east. Kerala`s wilderness lies in the evergreen forests and there is only less wildlife. In spite of this, Kerala contains 7,500 km sq of non-plantation forest cover. . Indian rosewood and Cassia trees dominate the virgin forests. Smaller fauna include bamboo, black pepper, cardamom, calamus rattan palm, and the aromatic vetiver grass. The forest has rich and diverse varieties of fauna as Asian Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Leopard, Nilgiri Tahr, Grizzled Giant Squirrel etc. One of the important parks of Kerala is The Silent Valley National Park, which harbors rare species as lion-tailed macaque, Indian sloth bear, gaur, porcupines, Sambar Deer, Gray Langur, Swamp Lynx, Boar, Old Wild monkey, Gray Wolf, Palm Civet etc.
There are reptiles like king cobra, viper, python, turtles, crocodiles etc. The bird fauna includes Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Oriental Bay Owl, Great Horn Bill, Peafowl, Indian Cormorant, Hill Myna, Oriental Darter, Black-hooded Oriole, Greater Racket-tailed and Bulbul, King Fisher, Jungle Wolf, etc.
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