Wildlife of Sri Lanka

Only minutes from Katunayake Airport, Negombo is the closest resort to the international terminal and a convenient place to recover from your journey. The beach is at its most picturesque around sunset time when local Karava fishermen mend their nets and prepare their boats ahead of night fishing trips. The strip of restaurants and cafés behind the beach, Lewis Place, is lively after dark and a great place to sample local seafood.

In the far northeast of Sri Lanka, Wilpattu is Sri Lanka’s largest national park, covering an amazing 130,000 hectares. The area was off-limits to tourists for nearly thirty years during the war, but re-opened again in 2009 and is fast regaining its popularity as a wildlife destination.

In addition to leopards, the park supports 30 species of mammal, including elephant, sloth bear, jackal, sambar deer, spotted deer, buffalo, mongoose and jackal. You won’t enjoy the same frequency of sightings as Yala –populations are more spread out, and less used to people. This is, rather, somewhere to come to savour wild, empty beaches, jungle and freshwater lakes – in short, a taste of proper tropical wilderness.

Anuradhapura, the vast capital that endured for nearly a millennium from around 377BC and today it remains a sacred city as Buddhism’s initial home on the island. The famous ‘Tooth Relic’ - a canine of the Buddha retrieved from his funeral pyre - reputedly came first to what is now Mihintale, where a small but charming temple was built around a sunken water pool hollowed out of a dark, boulder-strewn hillock.

Today, Anuradhapura retains great appeal for both tourists and pilgrims. It’s the sheer scale of the dagobas which impresses most. Sri Lanka is dotted with these typically bell-shaped and whitewashed memorial stupas but the most impressive are found here, among them the world’s largest, Abhayagiri Dagoba.

The prominence of Kandy, Sri Lanka’s highland capital and second largest city, rests on its role as repository of the famous ‘Tooth Relic’ of the Buddha, one of Asia’s most sacred objects. The holy canine is enshrined in the illustrious Sacred Temple of the Tooth, or ‘Dalada Mahagana’ – a fabulously atmospheric place to visit. Three times each day, a special offering, or ‘Thevada’, takes place in the shrine, accompanied by the temple orchestra in traditional Kandyan dress.

In complete contrast to the more arid country to its east, the 34-sq-mile (88-sq-km) Sinharaja Forest Reserve is the country’s last viable area of primary tropical rainforest. The hilly area has long featured in local legends and lore. Its name (literally ‘lion king’) is believed to be a reference to its former fame as the last redoubt of the now extinct Asiatic lion.

Birders should note the striking phenomenon of mixed species of foraging bird flocks, with up to an astonishing 48 species noted on occasion. Several nature trails, ranging from gentle walks to strenuous full-day hikes, offer a wonderfully intimate, if not soggy, experience of this special forest.

Udawalawe National Park attracts large herds of Elephants to its lakes. And for closer interaction, the park’s Transit Centre, where orphaned elephants are looked after until they are strong enough to be released back into the wild, is wonderful. 

Dominated by extensive plains interspersed with occasional hills and rocky outcrops, Udawalawe National Park is among the most popular in Sri Lanka. Created in the early 1970s as a sanctuary for animals displaced by a new reservoir on the Walawe River, its savannah-like grasslands have an almost African appearance while slender riverside marshlands are the ideal habitat for many birds.

The largely open terrain is riddled with streams and, at least for elephants (whose surprisingly dense resident population has been estimated at up to 600), makes for excellent game-viewing. Other species include various wild cats and leopard, several deer including sambar, jackals, civets and boar. Birders are amply rewarded with nearly 200 recorded species, most around or close to several water tanks.

Yala is the country’s oldest and most popular reserve, with varied landscapes ranging from forest, parkland, rocky outcrops, small lakes and lagoons to coastal dunes. Despite the prolific birdlife, herds of roaming elephants and chances of spotting the elusive sloth bear, most visitors come here to see the leopards. There are an estimated 350 of them – among the highest population densities anywhere in the world. Crocodiles and elephant are also plentiful.

When it comes to spotting Sri Lanka’s leopards, the dry woodlands and scrub of Yala National Park are unsurpassed. Sri Lanka’s leopards have no natural predators, which is why they have evolved to become so much larger than their African cousins. Around 1,000 inhabit the island’s national parks, and although not 100% guaranteed, the odds of sightings are higher than almost anywhere else in Asia.

Solitary, nocturnal hunters, the leopards tend to seek shade in the midday heat: for this reason early morning and late afternoon are the best times to see them. Guides in the parks know their most frequented lairs and patterns of movement. Rest assured yours will speak fluent English and have access to the latest information regarding their whereabouts, providing engaging and informative commentary on the species and its natural history. 

Stilt fishing is actually much less ancient than it looks. Local men started the practice during World War II, when food supplies were squeezed.

Like much else in Sri Lanka, the tradition was transformed by the 2004 tsunami, since when the locals have found they make more money posing for pictures than actually fishing. Some aren’t even fishermen at all, just opportunists posing for tips! Even so, the custom makes for an enthralling spectacle, especially for any teens, who can expect to be invited to scale a pole and pose for a snap – perfect Instagram fodder!

Serious photographers, however, need not worry.  Your TransIndus guide will know where to find bona fide stilt fishers at work on a quiet stretch of coast near Matara – the last practitioners of this quirky Sri Lanka tradition.

Sri Lanka ranks among the best places in the world to see whales. Ten different species are present in the deep waters off the island’s shoreline, including the largest mammal on the planet: the mighty blue whale. If it’s the big blue you’re keenest to see, then you’ll have to plan to be on the south coast, around Galle and Mirissa, between February and mid-March, when the whales pause on their annual migration to feed on the krill that appears here at this time.

Jutting like a small peninsula into the Indian Ocean from Sri Lanka's southwestern tip, Galle is one of the finest fortified examples of the colonial-era city of its kind in all of Southeast Asia. Featured on the UNESCO World Heritage list, Galle has been a port since ancient times but expanded rapidly under the Portuguese. Later, in the 18th century, the Dutch added curtain walls and bastions linked by splendid ramparts and solid gateways. These can still be enjoyed today and form a charismatic backdrop for easy ambles around the old town, which preserves an almost village-like atmosphere, rather at odds with its modern avatar on its landward side.

Galle's grid-planned streets are lined with traditional houses and mansions, their arched verandas and shuttered windows offering much-needed shade against the hot tropical sun. Among them lies a charming jumble of cafes, shops and guesthouses.

For lunch, try Poonie's Kitchen on Pedlar Street, which serves organic salads, spicy squash fritters and to-die-for pumpkin, prawn and coconut soup in a stylishly decorated courtyard shaded by flowering plumeria trees. The Terrace at the über-chic Amangalla boutique hotel is a also great place to linger over a long drink or latté, soaking up the old colonial-era architecture and make time for a cocktail at the elegant 'Ropewalk,' Sri Lanka's first speciality, Arrack Bar, and Galle's latest addition to its vibrant Bar Scene, serving cocktails based on the local coconut based local alcohol.