With just one car in front of us we were able to position ourselves to get excellent views of the Sri Lankan Leopard. The Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is
a leopard subspecies native to Sri Lanka. Since 2020,
the Sri Lankan leopard has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN
Red List, as the population is estimated at less than 800 mature individuals,
and is probably declining.
If this had been Yala there would have been a scramble and fight, with exhaust fumes and constant chatter. Here though it was calm and quiet. We settled in and I waited for positions to change. The Leopard seemed quite relaxed.
We were told that this was probably a young female. The Sri Lankan leopard has possibly evolved to become a
rather large leopard subspecies, because it is the apex predator in
the country.
From the tree the leopard would have views of the Water Buffalo and the car below, maybe this is what caught her attention.
She then stood up and turned around, laying along another bough facing away from us. Fortunately this did not last too long and she moved to another branch and we were able to move to get a really good view.
The back, hind leg hanging down with the tail.
Snoozing!
Alert!
And watching something, it wasn't clear what.
When she settled down once again I was distracted, a Sri Lankan Wood Shrike.
And up ahead of us a Changeable Hawk Eagle.
The Sri Lankan leopard is a solitary hunter, with the exception of females with young. Male's ranges typically overlap the smaller ranges of several females, as well as portions of the ranges of neighbouring males, although exclusive core areas are apparent. They are more active and prefer hunting at night, but are also somewhat active during dawn, dusk, and daytime hours. They do not usually store their kills in trees, perhaps because similarly-sized or larger carnivores are absent in Sri Lanka.
Alert once again.
An experiment with black and white.
Then some new activity, a yawn and we get to see the teeth.
The survival of the Sri Lankan leopard is primarily
threatened by increasing habitat loss and fragmentation, together with an
increasing risk of human-induced mortality. Leopards are killed by people
either accidentally in wire snares set for other species, or as retaliation
after livestock depredation (usually through poisoning the livestock carcass).
They are also occasionally shot. Since 2010, over 90 leopards are known to have
been killed by people in Sri Lanka.
More yawning.
And a stretch where the claws in the front paws are extended.
Some video.
Then she was up and moved towards the centre of the tree .
We waited and she appeared on the main trunk of the tree.
And jumped from the tree to the ground and started to walk away
More video as we followed
A quick drink and then it was as if it was following something. The driver saw another Leopard
Again we followed.
Then it was off with a run and was last seen going into the scrub.
The driver seemed to feel it would re-appear, so we sat while the other cars pulled away. There were a pair of Little Green Bee-eaters to keep us entertained.
But in the end we moved on as well. An amazing experience and one that will not be forgotten for a long time.
We had about an hours drive from the hotel to meet our driver for today's all day safari. This meant an early start and we left the hotel just before 5:00 am. The drive took us through more paddyfields and just before reaching the closest town, Panama we stopped for a Jerdon's Nightjar sitting on the road.
As this is an all day trip and we saw an awful lot I am going to split the day in the blog into three parts.
We met our driver and Hilux, and then set off into the park. All was well to start with, then we turned onto an ungraded road. It was apparently only sixteen kilometres to the park, but very quickly we realised that this was not going to be a quick journey. With gullies and holes it was very slow going and very uncomfortable. There were kilometre markers by the side of the road and we seemed to take ages to go one kilometre, let alone sixteen. Still the sun was coming up and we could see around us when we were not hanging on for dear life.
The sun rose into the sky just after dawn appearing like a big red ball as we looked back across the many paddyfields.
Early morning the Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl are not so elusive, this one of several males we saw on the journey.
A displaying Peacock, not sure what was the subject of its attention.
As the kilometre markers passed sixteen we passed through some open grassland. A Stripe-necked Mongoose ambled across the grass towards the woodland scrub.
This was the second species of Mongoose we had seen, this one a lot more hairy than the Ruddy Mongoose.
Finally we stopped at the park entrance. The offices were along side a large lake and a large Crocodile was laying on the rocks.
Helen negotiated the Macaques to get to the bathrooms, these are Toque Macaques, so called because their ruffled fur on the head looks like a Toque cap.
It was quite a large troop around the offices with quite a few babies, although you have to hope their mothers love them.
All checked in and we were on our way. We had been told that the roads were better in the park, it didn't seem so.
A Great Thick Knee by the side of the road. The name "thick knee" comes from the swollen joint that in all birds is actually the ankle, but assumed to be a knee!
An Open-billed Stork in a pool by the side of the road, not bothered at all by us.
If you wondered why its called Open-billed?
The Sri Lankan Grey Langur monkey, the other monkey species found in Sri Lanka. I have commented before how they appear to be dressed like local costumes. The long tail held high here in a question mark.
A female Asian Flycatcher.
We headed into the park and I asked the driver to stop while I tried to photograph a Pacific Golden Plover. But news then came in that a Sloth Bear had been seen, so we were off, bouncing and bumping along the roads.
When we arrived at the place the bear had gone, but we drove up and down looking for the bear and Leopard as the driver had seen paw marks in the sand. We seemed to drive up and down for ever, passing a very nice yellow cement mixer at least four times!
Finally the driver conceded and we moved on and came across a beautiful piece of open water.
With Water Buffalo in the water.
A Painted Stork close to the road, like the Open-billed completely oblivious to us.
A Black-winged Stilt with some lovely reflections.
A Curlew Sandpiper feeding on the margins of the lake.
Then a cow buffalo appeared with a very young calf.
Who were then joined by a Cattle Egret!
The calf licking it's mother ears.
Then another cow and calf appeared in the water.
A Land Monitor lizard made its way across the path.
We were sitting enjoying the scene with the buffalo and the many birds when a Common Kingfisher landed in the tree alongside us.
One of the dead trees had a Brahminy Kite sat in it.
And a Marsh Sandpiper dropped in, again, ridiculously close.
Kumana is not a busy park, we were told that today there were only ten cars booked in. Contrast this with the hundreds of jeeps that would be driving around Yala at the same time. There was a car in front of us and they were signalling for us to come closer. Our driver did so and they pointed to a tree and in the tree this is what we saw.
This is a convenient point at which to close Part One.
