India, Jan. 10 -- The birds know it. The bees know it. Even Disney movies know it: Forests are made of magic. New paths are forged every day as elephants amble along in search of snacks. The arrival of a single new bird can shake up the jungle. Sounds and stillness tell stories. And something is always watching. Most tourists, however, have tunnel vision for big cats and larger animals. They drive through, expectations high, DSLR at the ready. But believe that if they haven't had an Insta-worthy sighting, they saw nothing. There's no such thing as a nothing safari, wildlife experts say. "Chasing a tiger or a leopard is exciting. But there is so much more to see and experience in the forest," says Aly Rashid, director and naturalist at Jehan Numa Wilderness. He runs lodges in the Satpura region of Madhya Pradesh and organises wildlife trips around the world. Want to read a forest like a book? Here are some tips from him and other experts. In the Kemri shrubland, on the outskirts of Udaipur, naturalist Chandravijay Singh Hada can't stop marvelling at how resilient the forest is. The 150-hectare retreat around Chunda Shikar Oudi, once a hunting camp, was almost destroyed by unregulated grazing and tree felling. "But with conservation efforts over 30 years, the forest came back to life," he says. Today, it's home to the Rusty Spotted Cat (the smallest spotted cat in the world). And if your safari is during the day, ask your guide for signs of what went on during the night. "Nocturnal animals leave interesting cues," says Hada. What looks like a trail left by a broom may be a sign that a porcupine was on its nightly rounds. Don't be surprised if a bone falls from the sky directly into your rocky path. It's likely a Bearded Vulture deploying her favourite hack to crush the bone and get to the delicious marrow within. "Every vulture has different food preferences and hunts differently," says Hada. Ornithologist Nithin Divakar says that few tourists realise how much drama little animals can generate. When he visited the Gomantong Cave in Malaysia, he waited until dusk. That's when millions of free-tailed bats would rush out of the cave, forming different formations in the sky. "This spectacle continues for an hour. It's like nothing I've seen before," he says. A couple of Rufous-bellied eagles were out too, waiting to prey on the bats. But good guides will point out their other clever hacks. "They have tiny flowers, not more than a centimetre long, which honeybees pollinate. "For me, these insects are super heroes, helping the mangroves multiply, saving us from big disasters," says Vinaya. "The next time you go to the forest, spend time at the fringes." Wildlife researcher Shilpa Satheesan is always on the lookout for a ficus, rising majestically, contributing more than its fair share to the jungle. "A single ficus can do more for the local ecology than 100 other trees," says Satheesan. Spotting one in the forest is like meeting the local superhero. But like many superheroes, the ficus's powers come from unlikely places. In this case, tiny figwasps which enter the tree's fruit to feast, lay eggs and die in them. The baby wasps, when they emerge, end up pollinating the species. "It's all heroism and sacrifice," says Satheesan. A guide will know exactly how to spot the fruit and eggs....