Yala National Park, Sri Lanka: 2009

Yala’s tribute to two boys who loved its wilds

Refurbished in the memory of two wildlife enthusiasts who lost their lives while holidaying at their favourite National Park in the 2004 tsunami, the new-look museum is a wonderful introduction to its flora and fauna, writes Smriti Daniel

A trumpeting elephant welcomes you into Yala National Park’s museum. Triggered by a sensor that notes your entrance, a player runs through the gamut of animal sounds from the forest as a leopard growls and deer bark. Imprinted clearly into the cement floor are leopard pug marks, accurately placed to reflect the big cat’s stride. Along the walls are beautiful new cases filled with everything from skulls to skin to spoor, all of which are accompanied by explanations and interesting facts.

More..

Encounter with leopards in Sri Lanka

By Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, CEO of Jetwing EcoHolidays.

In July, the British High Commission relaxed the travel advisory to Yala and during the third week I was in Yala with the British High Commissioner Dr. Peter Hayes, his wife Kirsty and their children.

During the last weekend of September I returned with Tom Owen-Edmunds and Libby Southwell.

Our first half an hour into the park and the last half an hour into the park produced two amazing and memorable leopard sightings. Both were close, and provided great viewing. I suspect both were the Kohombagaswala cubs.

The first sighting was on the Uraniya Road, just before Palugaswala No. 1. We had left the Yala Village hotel and proceeded leisurely. In our first half an hour we came across a cluster of jeeps that were looking at a young male seated on a low rock. We had great views but through a thicket of Weera trees, quite atmospheric. After five minutes or so the leopard stretched and moved away.

We stopped at the tsunami memorial at Patanangala where a male House Sparrow attacked its reflection in the mirror. Tom who is a fairly keen birdwatcher ticked off the birds in a copy of John Harrrison's Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka. We examined House Swifts, Crested Tree-swifts, Barn Swallows and Ceylon Swallows which hawked overhead. Near the round wala on the Meda Para we came across a female Barred Button-quail which was foraging in the dry leaf litter. Its technique was to rotate in the leaves as if was trying to make a circular depression to create nest.

We watched it for at least fifteen minutes. The role of the sexes are reversed in this bird and the female was strongly marked.

We exited the park around 12 noon and headed to the Palatupana salt pans. There was a good mix of waders including a single Ruff. Species present included Golden, Grey and Lesser Sand Plover, Common, Green, Marsh and Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Redshank, Black-winged Stilt, Great Thick-knee, etc.

The evening game drive got off to a tremendous start when five jackals visited the lake near the ticket office. At Buttuwa wewa crocodiles were concentrated into a small area. We could see at least 50 crocodiles, some enormous.

Two endangered Lesser Adjutants were in the distance. Two Black-crowned Night-herons were also out in the open. This is unusual for a bird which is nocturnal.

We took the road running past Pimburagala which comes from the far side of Wal Mal Kema. This is a very graphic landscape with sheets of rock bordered by gaunt, leafless thorn scrub. The park was very dry and almost all of the water bodies were totally dry. The evening light was wonderful. At Wal Mal Kema, the effect of the evening light on the pink hued rock was breathtaking. It was quiet and we were the only jeep and we settled in to take it all in. Into this wonderful light walked a peacock, which shimmered and dazzled in the warm but soft light. More..

Video: Sri Lankan Sloth Bear at Yala National Park

The Sri Lankan Sloth Bear is omnivorous. It feeds on nuts, berries, and roots, as well as carrion and meat. One of its main staples is insects, which it removes from rotting stumps and trees with its long, hairless snout and its naked lips. It rarely kills animals. This bear also likes honey.

Yala National Park is a famous place to sight these mammals in Sri Lanka.

Snakes and Reptiles found at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Forsten's Cat Snake (Boiga forsteni). We found this wonderful snake at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka. - Asankeg Galgomuw/Creative Commons.

Other Reptiles found at Yala

Estuarine crocodile - (Crocodylus porosus)
Mugger Crocodile - ( Crocodylus palustris)
Water monitor - ( Varanus salvator salvator)
Bengal monitor - (Varanus bengalensis)
Fan-throated lizard - (Sitana ponticeriana)
Indian Star Tortoise - (Geochelone elegans)
Indian Black Turtle - (Melanochelys trijuga thermalis)
Indian Cobra - ( Naja naja)

Green Vine Snake - (Oxybelis fulgidus)
Indian Rock Python - (Python molurus)
Russel's Viper - (Daboia russelii russelii)
Common Krait - (Bungarus caeruleus)
Sri Lankan Krait - (Bungarus ceylonicus)
Forsten's Cat Snake - (Boiga forsteni)
Sri Lanka cat snake - (Boiga ceylonensis)
Saw-scaled viper - (Echis carinatus carinatus)

Sri Lanka as a whole is an amazing place to find a variety of reptiles. Check out some of the images below.

Picture: A Sloth Bear at Yala, Sri Lanka

Melursus ursinus or the Sloth Bear. Photo taken at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka, on 7/21/04/. Photo by Bodhitha.

The Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) is the only representative of the family Ursidae of the order Carnivora found in Sri Lanka. The generic name Melursus reflects the sloth bear’s great fondness for bees’ honey, for the animal is known to climb trees and endure attacks by swarming bees to reach the honeycombs. With its coarse and shaggy black fur, whitish muzzle and the characteristic whitish horseshoe-shaped mark on the chest, it can be easily recognized. It is the only bear that has long hairs on its ears. The shaggy black hairs are longest on the sides of the neck. It is a medium-sized bear with a stocky body, and to support it, the hind feet are plantigrade (the entire sole touches the ground). Each foot is armed with long, sharp, curved, non-retractile claws. The snout is mobile and nostrils can be closed at will, while the lips are especially long and protrusible. The sloth bear has the most unorthodox and unusual dentition as it lacks the inner pair of upper incisors - a specialized modification that enables it to suck termites or white ants like a vacuum cleaner. Continued..

On your way to Yala stop over at Hikkaduwa beach, Sri Lanka

"Hikkaduwa was exactly what I had expected. Beachfront bars, restaurants and colourful shops " - ARJUN THOMAS of the Indian dialy, The Hindu, recently visited Sri Lanka.

Photo by Argenberg/License

“Paradise” is still the most common word used by tourists to describe the lush island of golden beaches and brilliant blue waters. My friends and I decided that it was time to unleash our tropical side and experience for ourselves the much-talked-about magic of Sri Lanka and what better time to enjoy the sun and sand than during the famous Hikkaduwa Beach Festival!

Photo by Argenberg/License

The island kept up its promise of being a friendly nation right from the Bandaranayake International airport with its courteous and smiling immigration officers to the locals of the villages and cities.

Photo by 3Neus/License

The exchange rate is a definite ‘upper’ with a dollar (that I got for 48 Indian rupees) going for 114 Sri Lankan! But don’t be fooled. Sri Lanka is an expensive country and the feeling of being rich didn’t last long!

Photo by 3Neus/License

The drive to Colombo took longer than the said 40 minutes with bouts of traffic congesting the already bustling streets. However, the city of Colombo was a treat! It is clean, with tree-lined wide roads, great shops and restaurants. The apartment we stayed in overlooked the ocean and was set in the middle of a residential area neighbouring a deliciously stylish restaurant, café and lifestyle boutique. Continued..

[Video] The spectacular Yala National Park in Sri Lanka

YALA NATIONAL PARK, one of Sri Lanka 's premier eco tourism destinations, lies 24km northeast of Tissamaharama and 290km from Colombo on the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, spanning a vast 97,878 hectares over the Southern and Uva Provinces.

The vegetation in the park comprises predominantly of semi-arid thorny scrub, interspersed with pockets of fairly dense secondary forest. Small patches of mangrove vegetation also occur along the coastal lagoons. The park is renowned for the variety of its Wildlife (most notably its many elephants) and its fine coastline (with associated coral reefs). It also boasts a large number of important cultural ruins, bearing testimony to earlier civilizations and indicating that much of the area used to be populated and well developed.

Sri Lankan paradise resurrected

Nirmal Ghosh visits a national park that has survived the tsunami and civil war.

ON THE morning of December 26, 2004, Wicky Wickremasekera was in a Land Rover a few metres inland from a lodge on the edge of the ocean when he saw the tsunami coming.

That fateful morning still etches his nightmares.

Seeing the massive swell rolling in at a frightening speed, he told the driver to step on the gas and drive inland. Behind them as they fled, the 40-foot high wall of water thundered ashore, obliterating the Yala Game Safari Lodge, killing staff and dozens of tourists, among them a group of Japanese enjoying a picnic breakfast on the picturesque shore.

Wicky is the top naturalist for Jetwing Eco Holidays, a travel operator run by Sri Lankan naturalist, conservationist and author Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne. Jetwing owned the hotel that was destroyed, just outside Ruhuna Yala National Park in south eastern Sri Lanka.

Wicky took me to the site earlier this month. We walked around the shells of the ruined buildings, with the rubble of the disaster still crunching under our shoes. In a bizarre facsimile of some Kipling tale, long-tailed grey langur monkeys wandered about the ruins, some sitting on top of solitary walls looking out to the unbroken ocean. Continued..

[Photos] Elephants at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Click images below to view in higher resolution. Yala is a great place to see wild elephants. Some can be very territorial and aggressive. As with any wild animal maintain a safe distance.

Photo by ~anuradha/License

Photo by prise69/License

Photo by ciamabue/License

Photo by ciamabue/license

Photo by clurr/License

Photo by Faslan/License

Yala's eerie beauty

Dead trees in the marsh. Yala has some diverse and stunning scenery.Photo by prise69/license

Yala in Sri Lanka contains one of the world’s largest concentrations of leopards

Leopards are spotted regularly at Yala, resting on rocks situated on higher ground. Photo tharendra/license.

According to a PBS documentary called Leopards of Yala, the Yala national Park in Sri Lanka has one of the world’s largest concentrations of leopards in the world.

For more than a century, Yala National Park in Sri Lanka has been one of Asia’s most celebrated wildlife preserves, a lush windswept tropical forest rich in rare aquatic birds and abundant with ferocious predators, such as crocodiles and sloth bears. But only in very recent years has Yala’s big cat distinction been brought to light: It contains one of the world’s largest concentrations of leopards. NATURE takes viewers deep into the jungle habitat of these elusive animals, in Leopards of Yala.

Over a period of six years, Jehan Kumara, a businessman from Sri Lanka’s capital city of Colombo, and Dr. Ravi Samarasinha, a physician from the local countryside, devoted their spare time to tracking leopards in Yala. In the course of their work, they are joined by Scottish cameraman Gordon Buchanan, attracted to Yala by the lure of finding the only big cat he had never captured on film.

[Video] Leopard sightings at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Where to stay if you're going to Yala, Sri Lanka

Ayubowan! - Hello!

If you're headed to Yala National Park, which is located 290km from Colombo on the southeast coast of Sri Lanka, then you're going to need a place to stay.

Below is a list of hotels and lodges I compiled. Feel free to browse through the rest of my website for information on Yala and Sri Lanka.

Yala Village Hotel
Awaken to sounds of the ocean, music of the birds or trumpet of an elephant walking across your back yard. All our chalets provide absolute privacy with maximum interaction with the untamed beauty of Mother Nature. You have the choice of a wide array of themed chalets, i.e. deer, monkey, peacock etc.

Price: Single Rooms from $130 USD/Day per person - All inclusive! Chalets from $117 USD/Day per person - All inclusive!
Click here for the hotel's website.

Governors Camp Yala
Governors Camp Yala is a 7 acre, Secure, Jungle Resort comprising of twin cadjan pavilions, located about 7 kms away from the Yala National Park entrance and 400 mtrs away from the sea.

YALA is among the oldest and best known of Sri Lanka’s National Parks. Covering about 1297 km² or 129,700 Hectares, it is the largest agglomeration of protected areas in the country. The multifarious ecosystems ranging from Moist Monsoon Forest, to Dry Monsoon Forests, Semi Deciduous Forests, Thorn forests, Grasslands, Fresh water, Marine wetlands, Sandy beaches possesses a large number of important plant species and smaller animals.

Price: Rs. 12,500/- per night for 12 pax. Each additional pax with be charged at Rs. 1200/-. Can accommodate 24 pax.(Bed sheets, pillow cases and towels to be brought by the guests.)
Click here for the hotel's website.

Tissamaharama Resort

A rejuvenating retreat from the daily rigors of urban living, with an extraordinary and refreshing array of features and scenically located by the ancient ‘Tissa Wewa”, the Tissamaharama Resort comprise 50 rooms, a main dining restaurant, spacious pool area, volleyball court and tennis courts. It is also strategically located close to many places of religious and cultural interest such as much visited Shrine in Kataragama, the great pilgrim shrine, which is dedicated to Skanda, a popular Hindu deity.

Those interested in walking on the “wild side” of life, will never forget the Tissamaharama Resort, which is a mere 30-minutes drive to “Yala National Safari Park”.

53 rooms (including superior rooms, suites)

Price: All inclusive at only $65 per person/night.

Tissamaharama Resort is managed by Ceylon Hotels Corp. Click here for more information.

More information on hotels to follow. Please consider subscribing to my feed.

[Video] Leopard sightings at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

[Video] Leopard vs Sloth Bear at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Gordon Buchanan puts his life in grave danger to capture some remarkable footage at the Yala National Park in Sri Lanka.

[Video] Sri Lanka's sloth bear

This documentary is a brief window into the world of the bears during the fruiting season of a highly prized delicacy that they will search high and low for - and feast on with relish.

As soon as the season is over, the bears disappear once more into the depths of the forest - leading their mysterious and little-known lives...

For more info about this show and other work, visit: www.firewalkeronline.com

[Video] Wild elephant attack at the Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

I first found this video on Bailaman's blog.

Photos of Yala Wildlife, Sri Lanka

David Behrens visited the Yala National Parkin 2002. Click the thumbnails below to view David's images at the original gallery on Pbase.

On a recent trip to Sri Lanka I had the opportunity for a one day visit Yala National Park (also known as Ruhunu National Park). All I can say is WOW! This is like a miniature African safari! The pictures shown are the results of only one day in the park.

[Photo] Sri Lankan Axis Deer at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

(Click to enlarge)

Sri Lankan Axis Deer - (Axis axis ceylonensis)

The Sri Lankan axis deer (Axis axis ceylonensis) or Ceylon Spotted Deer is a subspecies of axis deer (Axis axis) that inhabits only Sri Lanka. The name chital is not used in Sri Lanka, according to Wikipedia.

Photo by 3Neus

About/Contact

I set this blog up in hopes of cataloging and archiving information on Sri Lanka's Yala National Park. If you would like to share your stories, photos, or videos, or if you would like to advertise on this blog please contact Hilal Suhaib at the email address below.

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History

Yala was proclaimed forestry land on March 23, 1900. A British prisoner of war by the name of Aengal Brake was brought to Ceylon in 1907. Subsequently he was appointed the first keeper of the Yala Park.Later the first zone (Block I) of the Yala National Park established in 1938 and was 14,101 hectares in area.

On February 25, 1938 the colonials announced Yala Park as the Yala National Park. The Department of Sanctuaries was established in 1938 and A.D. Wijewardane was appointed its caretaker.

The Block II was opened in 1964 which included 9.31 hectares land area. The third zone (Block III) was established on April 28, 1967 was 40.775 hectares. The Block IV was opened on October 9, 1969 was 26,418 hectares the Block V was opened in 1969 was 6.656 hectares and further 28,905 hectares were constituted as protected area to the Yala National Park - Wikipedia.

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