Arugam Bay Wildlife: What You Will Actually See

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: Coastal scrub and the town edges. Best: Year round. Fed animals here are bolder than they should be. Do not encourage it.

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 around the town, the lagoons and the Panama road. 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: The Panama road and the lagoon scrub behind the town at dusk. Best: May to September. Elephants on the road after dark are routine here. Drive slowly and do not get between a herd and the water.

Chital (Spotted Deer) Regular

Axis axis

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

Where: Open ground and lagoon margins on the Panama and Kumana roads. 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: Scrub and beach margins at dusk. Best: May to September.

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: Scrub margins and the road verges. 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: Wallowing in the lagoons and the flooded ground behind them. Best: Year round.

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: The Panama and Kumana road at dawn and dusk. Best: May to September. Leopards use the beach road here, which is why the east coast has a reputation the guidebooks rarely explain.

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 scrub and paddy behind the dunes. Best: Year round.

Black-headed Ibis Regular Near Threatened

Threskiornis melanocephalus

White body, bare black head and neck, and a bill built for finding what it cannot see.

Where: Lagoon shallows and the wet paddy behind the town. Best: Year round.

Bronze-winged Jacana Regular

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: Floating vegetation on the quieter lagoons. Best: Year round.

Grey-headed Fish Eagle Regular 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 over the lagoons. 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: Hovering over the lagoons and the channels. Best: Year round.

Spot-billed Pelican Regular 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 lagoons and tanks north of the town. 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: Scrub edges and track sides inland of the town. Best: Year round, easiest at first light.

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 at the lagoon edges, at dusk. Best: Year round.

Cotton Pygmy Goose Occasional

Nettapus coromandelianus

One of the smallest waterfowl on earth, nesting in tree holes and sitting out on lily pads.

Where: Lotus and floating weed on the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Eurasian Spoonbill Occasional

Platalea leucorodia

Feeds by sweeping that absurd bill side to side through the shallows, snapping shut the instant it touches something alive.

Where: Shallow lagoon margins, sweeping the water side to side. Best: November to March.

Great Thick-knee Occasional Near Threatened

Esacus recurvirostris

A heavy, huge-eyed shorebird that stands motionless on open shingle all day and only comes alive at dusk.

Where: Sandbars and dry lagoon margins. 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: Fruiting trees in the dry forest inland along the Panama road. Best: Year round.

Yellow Bittern Occasional

Ixobrychus sinensis

Freezes with its bill pointed straight up and vanishes into the reeds, which is why almost nobody sees it despite it being everywhere.

Where: Reed margins of the lagoons and the paddy. 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: Lagoon margins, drains and the beach scrub. Best: Year round.

Checkered Keelback Common

Fowlea piscator

The snake you will actually see in Sri Lanka, hunting fish in a paddy channel in broad daylight.

Where: Lagoon shallows and the channels. Best: Year round.

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 lagoons behind the town and the Panama tanks. Best: May to September. Present in the lagoon, which is signed for it.

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, gardens and roadside vegetation. 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: Sand, walls and track verges. 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 scrub inland of the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Green Sea Turtle Occasional

Chelonia mydas

The great grazing turtle of the tropics, the only sea turtle that turns vegetarian as an adult.

Where: Shallow water off the bay and the beaches north towards Pottuvil. Best: May to September.

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: Scrub and lagoon margins. Best: May to September.

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 sandy ground behind the beach. Best: Year round, most active after rain.

Olive Ridley Turtle Occasional Vulnerable

Lepidochelys olivacea

The smallest and most numerous sea turtle, famous elsewhere for mass nestings of thousands at once.

Where: The beaches north and south of the bay, coming ashore at night. Best: October to March.

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 inland of the lagoons. Best: Year round.

Saltwater Crocodile Occasional

Crocodylus porosus

The largest living reptile and the ocean going giant of crocodiles, now virtually gone from Thai waters.

Where: Tidal creeks and the estuary mouths. 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: Village and guesthouse surrounds after dark. Best: Year round.

Skittering Frog Common

Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis

Disturbed, it does not dive. It skips across the surface like a flat stone, and it can launch from open water with nothing to push against.

Where: Lagoon margins, ditches and paddy. Best: Year round.

Green Chromide Regular

Etroplus suratensis

One of only three cichlids in all of Asia, and the other two are its close relatives.

Where: Pottuvil and Panama lagoons and the connected channels. Best: May to September.

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 behind the beach and along the roads. 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: Scrub and lagoon-edge vegetation. Best: Year round.

Giant Freshwater Prawn Occasional

Macrobrachium rosenbergii

Claws longer than its body, and it has to reach the sea to breed.

Where: Pottuvil and Panama lagoon margins and the river mouths. Best: May to September, after dark.