Wasgamuwa 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: Riverine grassland and the open forest between the two rivers. Best: Year round.

Toque Macaque Common Endangered

Macaca sinica

A small endemic monkey with a swirl of hair on the crown arranged like a cap, and the most studied primate on the island.

Where: Forest edge and around the entrance. 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: Tall trees along the river strips and the park tracks. Best: Year round.

Asian Elephant Regular 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: Riverine forest and grassland along the Mahaweli. 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 margins and open ground at either end of the day. Best: Year round.

Grizzled Giant Squirrel Occasional 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: Riverine forest along the Mahaweli and Amban rivers. Best: Year round, morning. Flattens against the branch when alarmed rather than running.

Indian Flying Fox Occasional

Pteropus giganteus

A fruit bat with a metre and a half of wingspan, hanging in noisy thousands from a tree in the middle of town.

Where: Daytime roosts in tall riverside trees, streaming out at dusk. Best: Year round.

Ruddy Mongoose Occasional

Urva smithii

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

Where: Crossing tracks and working the forest edge. Best: Year round.

Wild Water Buffalo Occasional 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: River margins and marsh. Best: Year round.

Sloth Bear Rare Vulnerable

Melursus ursinus

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

Where: Dry evergreen forest away from the main tracks. Best: Jun-Jul. Very few vehicles, correspondingly few sightings reported.

Sri Lankan Leopard Rare 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: Dry evergreen forest and the riverine strips, usually before light. Best: Year round. Present and seldom seen. The forest here is denser than Yala and the animal has cover.

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: Open ground, riverbanks and the track verges. Best: Year round.

Pied Kingfisher Regular

Ceryle rudis

The largest bird in the world that can hover in still air with no wind to help it, which is how it fishes open water no perch reaches.

Where: Over the tanks and the river shallows. Best: Year round.

Sri Lanka Junglefowl Regular

Gallus lafayettii

The national bird, and the wild ancestor's cousin: a jungle cockerel with a yellow-centred red comb found nowhere else on earth.

Where: Forest edge and track sides at first light. Best: Year round.

Bronze-winged Jacana Occasional

Metopidius indicus

Toes so long it walks across floating leaves, and a breeding system in which the female holds the territory and the males do all the work.

Where: Park tanks with floating weed. Best: Year round.

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: Large trees along the Mahaweli and the Amban, at dusk. Best: Year round.

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: Along the Mahaweli and the park tanks. Best: Year round.

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: Riverine forest along the Mahaweli. Best: Year round. Few vehicles, so sightings are quieter and closer.

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 park tanks and the wider river channels. 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: River banks and tank margins. Best: Year round.

Oriental Garden Lizard Common

Calotes versicolor

The everyday garden lizard whose breeding males flush blood red about the head, earning the name bloodsucker.

Where: Scrub and woodland edge throughout. Best: Year round.

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: Track verges, rock and open ground. Best: Year round.

Bengal Monitor Regular

Varanus bengalensis

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

Where: Dry forest floor and open scrub. 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: Track edges and around the park buildings. 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: Tank margins and riverbank scrub. Best: Year round.

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: Open scrub and grassy verges. Best: Year round, most active after rain.

Mugger Crocodile Occasional 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: Mahaweli river margins. Best: Year round.

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: Wooded ground and shaded forest edge. Best: Year round.

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 trees along the river strips and around the park buildings. Best: Year round.

Asian Common Toad Common

Duttaphrynus melanostictus

The ubiquitous warty toad of doorsteps and gardens, hoovering up insects under every night light.

Where: Building surrounds and track verges after dark. Best: Year round.

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 scrub around the buildings at night. Best: Year round.

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: Rain pools and building surrounds after heavy rain. Best: November to January.

Indian Mottled Eel Rare Near Threatened

Anguilla bengalensis

Spends fifteen years in a Sri Lankan river, then swims to the open Indian Ocean to spawn once and die.

Where: The Mahaweli margins and its side channels. Best: Year round, after dark.

No free photograph of a living Indian mottled eel exists. The image is a nineteenth century scientific plate from Francis Day's The Fishes of India, cropped to the head.

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: Flowering scrub along the tracks and riverbanks. Best: Year round.

Common Picture Wing Regular

Rhyothemis variegata

Flies like a butterfly, not a dragonfly, on wings washed gold and black.

Where: Over the tanks and the river shallows. Best: Year round.

Signature Spider Common

Argiope anasuja

Writes a bold zigzag across the middle of its own web, and nobody is entirely sure why.

Where: Track-edge vegetation and open scrub. Best: Year round.

Giant Forest Scorpion Occasional

Heterometrus swammerdami

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

Where: Under logs and stones on the forest floor at night. Best: Year round.

Sri Lankan Ornamental Tarantula Rare

Poecilotheria fasciata

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

Where: Cavities in mature trees along the river strips, at night. Best: Year round.