Wildlife

Overview

Sri Lanka can be divided climatically into the smaller wet south-western and the larger dry north-eastern regions. The changing climatic regions belonging to the island enable it to house  many different species some of which are specific to just one particular zone.

Mammals of Sri Lanka

Elephants can be seen in abundance in Sri Lanka, there are about 2500 – 3000 elephants throughout the island located in most of its wildlife parks as well as the domestic elephants which take part in colourful festivals such as the Kandy Perahera and the rescued elephants at the Pinnawela Orphanage, which happens to be the largest elephant orphanage in the world. June to September is the best time to see ‘’the gathering’’ which is the annual movement of elephants at Minneriya Lake.

Sri Lankan is also famous for its leopard population which finds its home is both in the dry lowland hills and in the upper forested hills. Yala National Park has arguably the highest density of leopards in the world and is popular place to watch and photograph Sri Lanka’s top predator.  In addition, mammals which can be found, are the  fishing cat which searches for prey in marshes and on the edge of streams, the sloth bear, spotted deer , the shy barking deer and the magnificent Sambar which is seen in wooded hillsides, the Wild Pig – easily identified by its affinity to the domestic pig, and the interesting purple faced langur can found only in Sri Lanka.

Birdlife of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has a prolific birdlife most of which (250 resident species) are found in the wet zone although certain species can also be found in the dry zone.  The wet zone population includes the Sri Lanka myna, whistling thrush, yellow-eared bulbul, red-faced malkoha and brown-capped babbler. The migratory season, when many non-resident birds can be seen is October to March.  The plethora of lakes and reservoirs attract vast numbers of water birds including stilts, sandpipers, terns and plover, as well as herons, egrets and storks;  the forests attract species of warblers, thrushes, cuckoo amongst others.  The endemic jungle fowl is Sri Lanka’s national bird. 

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