Horton Plains Wildlife: What You Will Actually See

Purple-faced Langur Regular Endangered

Semnopithecus vetulus

A shaggy black leaf monkey with white side whiskers, and the highland form is so hairy it is known as the bear monkey.

Where: Forest edge along the circular trail, often sitting out in early sun. Best: Year round, morning. The bear monkey: the thick-coated highland form, and the one worth travelling for.

Sri Lankan Leopard Very 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: Montane forest and grassland edge. Best: Year round, dawn. A genuinely different habitat for the animal, and a genuinely rare sighting.

Yellow-eared Bulbul Common

Kelaartia penicillata

The bird of the highland garden, olive and yellow with an absurd yellow ear tuft sticking out sideways.

Where: Scrub and forest edge around the entrance and the plains margin. Best: Year round, morning. Often within a few metres. Unusually cooperative for a highland endemic.

Dull-blue Flycatcher Regular Near Threatened

Eumyias sordidus

Ash-blue and quietly beautiful, sitting motionless on a mossy branch in the highland cloud forest.

Where: Low mossy branches inside the forest along the circular trail. Best: Year round, morning. Perches upright and still, then sallies and returns. Scan slowly; the difficulty is all in the looking.

Sri Lanka Bush Warbler Occasional Near Threatened

Elaphrornis palliseri

A dull brown skulker of the highland thickets that most birders hear a dozen times and see once.

Where: Thicket edges along the circular trail and around the entrance. Best: Year round, morning. Wait at the edge of a thicket. The red eye is the confirming mark and needs a decent view.

Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush Rare Endangered

Myophonus blighi

A dark highland thrush that sings from wet rock at first light and is gone by the time the mist lifts.

Where: Stream crossings on the first stretch of the Baker's Falls trail. Best: Year round, the first hour after the gate opens. Arrive for opening or do not bother. Once visitor traffic starts it is finished for the day.

Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon Rare Vulnerable

Columba torringtoniae

A big grey highland pigeon with a chequerboard collar, scarce and shrinking with the forest it needs.

Where: Fast flight views between canopy patches along the circular trail. Best: Year round, morning. Usually a bird crossing a gap. The chequered neck patch needs a clear view to see at all.

Black-lipped Lizard Common Endangered

Calotes nigrilabris

An Endangered endemic that you will see without trying, because it basks on the hedges at Horton Plains.

Where: Basking on gorse and rhododendron along the World's End circuit. Best: January to March, sunny mornings. Seen without trying, which is worth saying about an Endangered species.

Common Lanka Skink Regular

Lankascincus fallax

The little bronze skink that shoots out from under every leaf you turn at Sinharaja belongs to a genus found nowhere but this island.

Where: Montane litter, where the animal is more likely the highland species Lankascincus taprobanensis. Best: Year round. Nine species in the genus and all of them endemic. Field identification is not straightforward.

Common Rough-sided Snake Occasional Endangered

Aspidura trachyprocta

A small earthworm hunter from an entire snake genus found nowhere but Sri Lanka, and it lives under the logs at Horton Plains.

Where: Under logs and in leaf litter at the forest edge, and in Nuwara Eliya gardens. Best: Year round. Common where it occurs, despite the Endangered listing.

Rhino-horned Lizard Occasional Endangered

Ceratophora stoddartii

A cloud forest lizard with a curved horn on its nose, and when it is cornered it opens a bright orange mouth at you.

Where: Low on mossy trunks and saplings along the Baker's Falls loop and the forest before the plateau. Best: January to March, early morning before the mist. The one place where a horned lizard is a morning's target rather than an expedition.

Pygmy Lizard Rare Endangered

Cophotis ceylanica

A moss mimic with a prehensile tail that grips like a chameleon's, and it gives birth to live young, which agamids are not supposed to do.

Where: Mossy trunks in the forest sections, and in the Nuwara Eliya and Hakgala forest. Best: January to March, damp misty mornings.

Montane Hourglass Tree Frog Regular Endangered

Taruga eques

The female kicks her own foam nest into shape with her hind legs while hanging over a highland pond, and she is nearly twice the length of the male clinging to her.

Where: Pond and marsh margins around Hakgala and Nuwara Eliya after dark. Best: December to March, night, after rain. Females are nearly twice the length of the males clinging to them.

Schmarda's Shrub Frog Regular Endangered

Pseudophilautus schmarda

Horned brows and lichen-mottled skin, so perfectly matched to a mossy branch that guides find it by call and only then by eye.

Where: Roadside cloud forest edge, Hakgala and the Nuwara Eliya gardens after dark. Best: December to February and the inter-monsoon months, night. Horton Plains itself is day only, gates 06:00 to 18:00, so night frogging happens at Pattipola, Hakgala and the park margins.

Skittering Frog Regular

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: High altitude streams and pools, at the top of its range. Best: Year round, daytime.

Small-eared Shrub Frog Regular Endangered

Pseudophilautus microtympanum

The small ones in the tea and the grassland are not a different species. They are teenagers, and they move into the forest when they grow up.

Where: Hakgala and the Nuwara Eliya area after dark; park margins rather than inside the park. Best: December to March, night.

Leaf-nesting Shrub Frog Occasional Endangered

Pseudophilautus femoralis

Every other shrub frog on the island buries its eggs in soil. This one glues them to the underside of a leaf, and finding that green clutch is easier than finding the frog.

Where: Hakgala, Nuwara Eliya gardens and roadside cloud forest after dark. Best: December to March, night. Turn leaves over. Seven to twenty two green eggs stuck underneath is a positive record.

Montane Paddy Frog Occasional Endangered

Minervarya greenii

Its lowland relatives are among the commonest frogs in Sri Lankan paddy. This one made the same living at fifteen hundred metres and got stranded there.

Where: Ditches, marsh margins and field edges around Nuwara Eliya after dark. Best: December to March, night.

Sri Lanka Narrow-mouthed Frog Occasional Endangered

Microhyla zeylanica

While the shrub frogs on the same hilltops abandoned water entirely, this one kept its tadpoles, and the pools it needs are drying out.

Where: Pool and bog margins on the plateau, in daylight; the park is day only. Best: December to March, daytime. Night access is not permitted, so this is a daytime search at pool edges.

Pattipola Caecilian Very rare Endangered

Ichthyophis orthoplicatus

The only Sri Lankan caecilian with no warning stripe, and the one that lives highest.

Where: Damp soil and leaf litter around Pattipola and the plateau margins. Best: December to March, after rain.

Banded Mountain Loach Regular

Schistura notostigma

A hill stream loach that spends its life under stones in current fast enough to sound like rain.

Where: Cold stony streams on the plateau and its margins. Best: December to March.

Ceylon Tiger Occasional

Parantica taprobana

A high country butterfly found only on this island, and only above about a thousand metres.

Where: Plateau grassland, the Nuwara Eliya roadsides and Victoria Park. Best: December to March.

No free photograph of the Ceylon tiger exists. The image shows the glassy tiger, Parantica aglea, a close relative photographed in southern India.