Introduction
This site is a vehicle for sharing our knowledge of Phuket Island and its wildlife. The name of the website is something of a misnomer as we do not offer tours. The photos were taken and are owned by Ian Dugdale and Punjapa Phetsri (aka Games). The site is maintained by Ian. Thai translation by Games.
Photographs
Most of the photos shown on this site were taken on Phuket Island. Those that were not taken on the island are framed in orange if the species is known (by me) to occur on the island or in red if not. The originals are 3264x2448 bytes but have been reduced in size to 1000x750 bytes for the slide show, 500x375 for the pop-ups and 200x150 for the thumbnails. I have been generous with the sizes as I believe most people interested in seeing nature photography on the web will be using a broadband connection.
Site architecture
This is a dynamic site as opposed to a static site. In a static site all the pages are created up front and are displayed when requested. In a dynamic site the pages are only created when requested, this allows each user to display exactly what they want. All information about the photos and the taxonomy of the subjects is stored in a database. User requests submit queries against the database, programs take the database results and build pages which are then displayed back to the user.
Contact
All comments about the site are welcome.
Please also get in touch if you are interested in Phuket's wildlife and would like to get together for walks, snorkeling, etc.
Email to - ian@phuketnaturetours.com
Links and acknowledgments
I have found the following resources very useful in the identification of species.
Thai Bugs - John Moore's huge collection of photographs taken in the forests around Chiang Mai.
Butterflies of Singapore - Khew Sin Khoon 's comprehensive and interesting account of the butterflies of Singapore
Chin's Butterfly Gallery - Chin Fah Shin's photos and insights on the butterflies of Malaysia
Butterfly Pals - Forum for the butterflies of Singapore and beyond
Butterflies & Dragonflies of Sri Lanka - Michael and Nancy van der Poorten's collection of insect photos and information from Sri lanka
Ecology Asia - Ecology articles, photographs and descriptions of Singapore's freshwater fish, amphibians, reptiles & mammals
FrogWeb - A comprehensive guide to the diversity and natural history of the frogs of the Malay Peninsula
The Scorpion Fauna - Provides advice on studying, keeping and breeding scorpions. Also has galleries and species lists by countries
Asia Dragonfly - Forum and shared gallery of oriental Odonata
Siam Insect Zoo - Insect zoo of the author of the excellent Beetles of Thailand and Butterflies of Thailand