Wilpattu Wildlife: What You Will Actually See

Chital (Spotted Deer) Common

Axis axis

The prey base the whole leopard story rests on, and the animal whose alarm call tells you where the cat is.

Where: Villu margins and open woodland. Best: Year round.

Tufted Grey Langur Common Near Threatened

Semnopithecus priam

Long-limbed, silver-grey and black-faced, sitting in the open on a ruin or a track edge in every dry zone park.

Where: Woodland around the villus. Best: Year round.

Golden Jackal Regular

Canis aureus

The dry zone's opportunist, trotting along a track at dawn and howling in chorus at dusk so the whole park knows where it is.

Where: Track edges and villu margins. Best: Year round, dawn and dusk. The dusk chorus is one of the defining sounds of a night in the dry zone.

Ruddy Mongoose Regular

Urva smithii

A big reddish mongoose that carries its black-tipped tail curled up over its back as it crosses a track.

Where: Track edges and open woodland. Best: Year round.

Wild Water Buffalo Regular Endangered

Bubalus arnee

Wide-swept horns spanning further than any other bovid, on an animal that is genuinely dangerous and genuinely rare in its true wild form.

Where: The villus, often with only heads and horns showing. Best: Year round. Telling genuinely wild animals from feral ones is not straightforward in the field.

Asian Elephant Occasional Endangered

Elephas maximus

The largest land animal in Asia, and a genuinely wild one is worth seeking out over the camp elephants most tourists meet.

Where: Villu margins and open woodland. Best: February to October.

Sloth Bear Occasional Vulnerable

Melursus ursinus

A shaggy, long-clawed insect specialist that vacuums termites out of a mound loudly enough to hear from fifty metres.

Where: Palu trees along the tracks and around the villus. Best: Jun-Jul, morning. The best sloth bear park in the country, and the palu season is the whole reason to time a trip for it.

Sri Lankan Leopard Occasional Endangered

Panthera pardus kotiya

The largest leopard subspecies in the world, and on this island it is the top predator, which changes how it behaves.

Where: Track edges and the margins of the villus. Best: Feb-Oct, early morning. Fewer cats and far fewer jeeps than Yala. Better watching when you do connect.

Grizzled Giant Squirrel Rare Near Threatened

Ratufa macroura

A cat-sized squirrel with a tail longer than its body, flowing along a branch and then freezing flat against the bark.

Where: Taller woodland near water. Best: Year round. Often mistaken for a monkey at first glance.

Indian Pangolin Ultra rare Endangered

Manis crassicaudata

A walking pine cone that eats ants, rolls into an impenetrable ball when threatened, and is the most trafficked wild mammal on earth.

Where: Dry forest away from the tracks. Best: Year round, after dark.

Rusty-spotted Cat Ultra rare Near Threatened

Prionailurus rubiginosus

The smallest wild cat in the world, about half the weight of a house cat, and one of the least seen animals on the island.

Where: Scrub and forest away from the tracks. Best: Year round, after dark.

Indian Peafowl Common

Pavo cristatus

Wild, and behaving like a wild bird: displaying on a termite mound at dawn with leopards in the same scrub.

Where: Villu margins and the palu forest tracks. Best: Year round. Quieter setting, and often the first bird you hear at dawn.

Sri Lanka Woodshrike Regular

Tephrodornis affinis

A plain grey-brown bird of the dry zone scrub that repays anyone willing to look at something that is not a leopard.

Where: Scrub and woodland edge along the tracks. Best: Year round. Same habit, quieter park.

Brown Fish Owl Occasional

Ketupa zeylonensis

A big owl with bare unfeathered legs, because feathers are a liability when you fish with your feet.

Where: Tall trees at the villu edges. Best: Year round, dusk.

Brown-capped Babbler Occasional

Pellorneum fuscocapillus

A ground babbler that sings a clear rising three-note whistle from inside a thicket and refuses to come out.

Where: Scrub and thicket along the tracks. Best: Year round. Gives a safari day something to listen for between the mammals.

Grey-headed Fish Eagle Occasional Near Threatened

Icthyophaga ichthyaetus

Sits low over the water on a dead branch for hours, then drops feet first and comes up with a fish half its own weight.

Where: Dead branches overhanging the villus. Best: Year round. Pairs hold the same villus year after year, which makes it unusually findable for a big raptor.

Malabar Pied Hornbill Occasional Near Threatened

Anthracoceros coronatus

The island's big hornbill, sealing the female into a tree hollow behind a wall of mud for the whole nesting period.

Where: Tall trees along the tracks and around the villus. Best: Year round. Heard well before it is seen. The wingbeats carry.

Spot-billed Pelican Occasional Near Threatened

Pelecanus philippensis

A pelican that fishes the ancient irrigation tanks, and one of the few large waterbirds doing better now than it was.

Where: The larger villus. Best: Year round.

Sri Lanka Green Pigeon Occasional

Treron pompadora

A pigeon the colour of a lime leaf, sitting motionless in a fig until it moves and gives itself away.

Where: Fruiting trees around the villus. Best: Year round. Flocks sit motionless until one shifts.

Indian Paradise Flycatcher Rare

Terpsiphone paradisi

The adult male grows tail streamers three times the length of his own body and trails them through the canopy like ribbon.

Where: Riverine strips and shaded thickets. Best: Nov-Mar.

Sirkeer Malkoha Rare

Taccocua leschenaultii

A cuckoo that gave up on being a cuckoo: it builds its own nest, raises its own young and runs along the ground rather than flying.

Where: Scrub margins away from the villus. Best: Year round.

Asian Water Monitor Common

Varanus salvator

A dragon sized lizard that swims canals and city parks, second only to the Komodo dragon in length.

Where: Villu margins. Best: Year round.

Bengal Monitor Common

Varanus bengalensis

A dry-country monitor that climbs well, digs constantly and eats essentially anything smaller than itself.

Where: Dry forest and open scrub. Best: February to October.

Mugger Crocodile Common Vulnerable

Crocodylus palustris

The broadest snout of any living crocodile, and in one Sri Lankan park block there are more of them per square kilometre than anywhere else on earth.

Where: The villus, particularly Kumbukvillu and Panikkarvillu. Best: February to October. Dry season concentrations as the villus shrink.

Sri Lankan Common Skink Common

Eutropis lankae

The bronze skink basking on every wall, ruin and hotel lawn in the country turned out in 2020 to be an endemic species, not the Indian one everybody had been calling it.

Where: Sandy open ground and track edges. Best: Year round.

Indian Black Turtle Regular Near Threatened

Melanochelys trijuga

The dark, three keeled turtle basking on every half sunk log in the dry zone, and the northern race is found nowhere else on earth.

Where: Basking on logs and floating vegetation at the villu margins. Best: Sunny mornings, year round.

Green Forest Lizard Occasional

Calotes calotes

The biggest lizard in the trees here, and in the breeding season the male's head and throat turn crimson.

Where: Wooded areas and forest edge. Best: Year round.

Indian Cobra Occasional

Naja naja

The spectacled cobra of South Asian myth, and one of the very few snakes a visitor to the dry zone parks has a real chance of seeing.

Where: Open scrub and track edges. Best: Year round.

Indian Rock Python Occasional Near Threatened

Python molurus

Sri Lanka's largest snake, and in the dry season it lies out at the edge of a shrinking waterhole where every animal in the park has to come.

Where: Villu margins and around rock outcrops. Best: February to October.

Indian Star Tortoise Occasional Vulnerable

Geochelone elegans

The most trafficked tortoise on earth, and the Sri Lankan animals are the biggest and the most boldly starred of the lot.

Where: Sandy open scrub and track verges. Best: After rain.

Oriental Rat Snake Occasional

Ptyas mucosa

A long, fast, wide eyed snake that races across open ground and is one of the region's great rodent controllers.

Where: Track edges and open woodland. Best: Year round, daytime.

Painted-lip Lizard Occasional

Calotes ceylonensis

A dry zone endemic with a red stripe painted along its upper lip, and when it is alarmed the stripe flashes white.

Where: Monsoon forest and wooded track edges. Best: Year round.

Russell's Viper Occasional

Daboia russelii

The snake that kills more people in Sri Lanka than any other, sitting in plain sight on a paddy bund and hissing like a punctured tyre.

Where: Open ground and track margins. Best: Year round.

Sri Lankan Flapshell Turtle Occasional Vulnerable

Lissemys ceylonensis

The only chelonian species found solely in Sri Lanka, split off from its mainland cousin eight million years ago, and still without a conservation status of its own.

Where: Villu shallows and mud banks. Best: February to October.

Indian Chameleon Rare

Chamaeleo zeylanicus

Sri Lanka's only chameleon, and it is genuinely scarce here, so finding one in a thorn bush in the northwest is a proper piece of luck.

Where: Thorn scrub and low trees along the tracks, and on the Mannar road beyond the park. Best: Year round. Usually found because someone spotted a slow rocking shape against the sky.

Sri Lankan Flying Snake Rare

Chrysopelea taprobanica

A gliding snake of the dry zone that flattens its belly into a wing and launches itself off a temple wall.

Where: Old growth trees and forest edge. Best: Year round, daytime.

Common Krait Very rare

Bungarus caeruleus

Sri Lanka's deadliest snake bites people while they sleep, and the bite is often painless enough that they do not wake.

Where: Dry zone scrub, on night road transects only. Best: Year round, night. Effectively a specialist herping find rather than a safari one.

Chunam Tree Frog Occasional

Polypedates maculatus

The one that is not endemic, sharing the same walls and water tanks, and the hourglass is the whole test.

Where: Bungalow walls and dry zone scrub. Best: Year round, night.

Jerdon's Bullfrog Occasional

Hoplobatrachus crassus

The biggest frog on the island, and its tadpoles hunt and eat other tadpoles, including each other when the pool gets crowded.

Where: Seasonally flooded open ground. Best: October to January, night.

Marbled Balloon Frog Occasional

Uperodon systoma

It lives underground eating termites and surfaces for a few nights a year when the rains flood the plains, so you either hit it or miss it entirely.

Where: Flooded ground and rain pools after heavy rain. Best: October to January, night, during rain.

Sri Lankan Painted Frog Occasional

Uperodon taprobanicus

Grabbed by a snake it inflates into a balloon and exudes a glue that gums the snake's mouth shut, and it shares tree holes with ornamental tarantulas.

Where: Dry zone scrub and rain pools. Best: October to January, night.

Crimson Rose Common Near Threatened

Pachliopta hector

Flies slowly and in the open because it is poisonous and every predator on the island knows it.

Where: Roadsides and villu margins. Best: February to July.

Giant Forest Scorpion Occasional

Heterometrus swammerdami

Among the largest scorpions on earth, and its sting is milder than a bee's.

Where: Forest floor and track margins at night. Best: February to July, night.

Sri Lankan Ornamental Tarantula Rare

Poecilotheria fasciata

The spider that gave the ornamental tarantulas their name, described in 1804 and found only here.

Where: Mature trees in the forest blocks, at night. Best: February to July, night.