Udawalawe Wildlife: What You Will Actually See

Asian Elephant Common 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: Grassland and the reservoir margins throughout the park. Best: Year round. The most reliable elephants in Sri Lanka, seen on essentially every drive, and without the seasonal gamble the Gathering involves.

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: Grassland across the park. 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: Open grassland and the track margins, in the first and last hour of light. Best: Year round. One of the most reliable jackal parks in the country, helped by grassland with almost no cover to hide in.

Tufted Grey Langur Regular 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: Scattered trees across the grassland. Best: Year round.

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: Roost trees near the reservoir and the surrounding villages, 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: Grassland edges and scrub. Best: Year round.

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 grassland and reservoir margin. Best: Year round. Shares the open ground with the elephants, which makes for a good photograph.

Pied Kingfisher Common

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 reservoir and the inflow channels. Best: Year round.

Sri Lanka Swallow Common

Cecropis hyperythra

A deep chestnut swallow with a long forked tail, hunting over paddy and open country the length of the island.

Where: Hawking low over the grassland and the reservoir margin. Best: Year round. Deep chestnut below, long tail streamers, unmistakable in good light.

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: Reservoir shallows and wet grassland. 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 reservoir, fishing in the open water and loafing on the bund. Best: Year round. Easy to watch at length from the vehicle.

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: Riverside and reservoir margin trees. 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: Dead branches over the reservoir and along the Walawe river. 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: Larger fruiting trees along the river and at the park margins. Best: Year round.

Red-backed Flameback Occasional

Dinopium psarodes

The smaller crimson woodpecker, and the one people misidentify because there are two of them on this island and nowhere else.

Where: Scattered trees and dead timber in open country. Best: Year round. Easy to see against open sky.

Sri Lanka Junglefowl Occasional

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 and woodland edge away from the open grassland. Best: Year round, easiest at first light.

Pallid Harrier Rare Near Threatened

Circus macrourus

Quarters the grassland at head height on raised wings, tilting and rocking, hunting entirely by sound and surprise.

Where: Open grassland away from the reservoir. Best: Nov-Mar.

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: Reservoir edge and river banks. 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: Grassland and scrub. Best: Year round.

Checkered Keelback Regular

Fowlea piscator

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

Where: Reservoir shallows and inflow channels. Best: Year round.

Mugger Crocodile Regular 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: Reservoir edge and the Walawe river banks. Best: Year round.

Oriental Rat Snake Regular

Ptyas mucosa

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

Where: Grassland and reservoir margins. Best: Year round, daytime.

Indian Black Turtle Occasional 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: Reservoir shallows and inflow channels. 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: Shallow muddy margins of the reservoir and its feeder channels. Best: May to September. Look for a smooth snout and two eyes at the surface, nothing else showing.

Indian Rock Python Rare 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: Reservoir margins and grassland. Best: Year round.

Indian Green Pond Frog Common

Euphlyctis hexadactylus

One of the very few frogs anywhere that deliberately eats plants, which for an order of committed carnivores is close to heresy.

Where: Reservoir shallows and lotus beds. 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: Reservoir shallows and inflow channels. 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 edges 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: Track edges and open woodland after dark. Best: Year round, night.