A growing field guide to the wildlife of Sulawesi — mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. This edition covers 353 species, 350 of them with photographs, across 14 wildlife-watching areas.
This is a curated starter list rather than a full checklist: it leads with Sulawesi's endemics and the species a visitor is most likely to encounter, and it is being extended as photographs and records are confirmed. Birds make up the largest section. Amphibians and small reptiles are barely represented, which reflects how little of Sulawesi's herpetofauna is photographed rather than how much of it there is.
Sulawesi has an unusually high proportion of endemic species — animals found on this island and nowhere else — so a field guide written for Borneo or Java will mislead you here. Taxonomy and identifications are still being reviewed.
The status label on a species page is its global IUCN Red List category — how threatened the species is worldwide. Because so many Sulawesi animals are endemic, the global category usually is the island assessment, and several of them are among the most threatened primates and birds anywhere.
Indonesia separately maintains its own list of legally protected species, which governs what may be kept, traded or disturbed. That is a legal status rather than a measure of extinction risk, and it is not shown in this guide.
National park and reserve entry rules, fees, permits and road access change often, and several areas — Tangkoko's tarsier walks among them — can only be visited with a registered local guide. Check current conditions with the park office or your operator before you travel rather than relying on the details here.
Wildlife sightings are never guaranteed. The species listed for each area are what is realistically possible there, not what you should expect on a given day.
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.
Photographs come from iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons, used under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences. Every one keeps its photographer's name, a link to the original and its licence.
Photographs are chosen to show the species clearly, so some were taken elsewhere in its range rather than in Sulawesi. Tap the ⓘ button on any photograph to see who took it and under what licence. The full list is below.