March Photo tour Udawalawe and Yala National Parks
In this blog will not be discussing the 12 Leopard
sightings we saw. For the leopard blog please visit
We decided to head to Columbo with Sri Lankan Airlines
from London Heathrow on the midday flight. The reason is that we would arrive at 4:30am and
by the time we cleared customs we were on the 5 hour journey to Udawalawe for the afternoon drive.
Mad??? Possibly but I like to maximise my time on the
ground.
Originally we were going to do a morning boat trip for
Blue Whales but decided to cancel due to very few sightings the previous week and none the week we were
there. Whales will be on another trip. So the revised week trip would be two half days in Udawalawe followed by 2 half and 3 full days in Yala.
Our two safaris in Udawalawe would bring numerous Elephant sightings
and most importantly we found a new and un-named Tusker. He had been spotted the previous week
but not photographed, so we had the privilege of being the first to record this stunning
young Male Tusker and also the only jeep to be with him.
In Sri Lanka only males can get tusks and only about 2%
of the population will have them. Meaning that there’s around 300 tuskers over the whole of the
island. So when one is about it draws the crowds.
February/March time is a good time to spot them as the
female herds are moving around and the males go into musth and also follow the herds.
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| Female |
We saw various small herds and only a couple of young
males. We also found a mother with her 3/4 month old and 2 year old calf. The young baby was very
emaciated, a very sad sight to see. However our driver has been watching this young baby carefully
over the last month, as he too was worried and the good news is that he has been putting weight on
and is looking much healthier. When he was two months old they thought they would lose him. He
was walking well and was very active So the future looks better for him.
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| Mother and calf |
While on these runs we prioritised the search for Jungle
cat. A nocturnal medium size cat that is hard to see. Our driver is fascinated by them and knows some
great locations for them. Also Udawalawe is unique for these elusive cats, they come out in the
day!!!!
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| Fresh Jungle Cat Paw Print |
When our second drive came to an end we were unlucky and
did not find any cats. Annoyingly the next morning he had fantastic views of one in the area we
searched. That’s wildlife and the reasons we keep doing this.
After our morning drive we headed to Yala and our first
drive in the park. The parks are linked by corridors and only 1 and a half hours apart. So we had
time to check into our hotel and have a spot of lunch. Our hotel for the rest of the trip was very comfortable
and the service was fantastic. The chef would prepare anything we would like to have, so we opted for
the fantastic local cuisine. No western food apart from I had cravings for French fries, so he made me
some while I relaxed before dinner one evening. They had a small amount of Sri Lankan spice
making them that little bit more special.
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| Our hotel room - huge it was!!! |
Our time at Yala was fantastic and we had amazing views
and times with various elephants. We witnessed some stunning behaviour - I love photographing
behaviour over an animal standing or resting.
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| To males showing same sex affection |
We witnessed dust baths, mud baths, tree cleaning,
swimming and lots of males in musth. When males are in musth they can be very aggressive and
unpredictable. Here is another reason to have a good driver that understands this behaviour and
put his jeep at distance and in a position that you are able to get your photos. Ours would not
approach.
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| Mother showing calf how to dust bath |
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| Male in musth biting tree after pushing it down |
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| Two females and calf's mud scrapping |
There are rules about how close you can be, but it seems
that the inexperienced drivers ignore this. Luckily the wardens patrol the park and rule breakers
receive bans, from 1 week to a month and even lifetime bans are issued. Every day these are
enforced. It is working and the drivers are improving. Also the owners of jeeps issue fines to the
driver if they get a ban. The reason is that the jeep gets banned too!!!! The bans are publicly displayed
in the office and entrance.
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| Huge Male in musth |
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| Tusker coming out the forest |
The wildlife in Yala is stunning. Over 200 species of
bird, deer, boar, jackals, reptiles and Sloth Bear are abundant. We were lucky to see three of the very shy Bears and even
more privileged to see the incredibly rare and shyer Mouse Deer/Chevrotains. However this small deer
did not hang around and ran away straight away...still super pleased to have witnessed
such a stunning animal.
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| Baby Land Monitor in a tree |
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| Green Bee-eater |
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| Serpent Eagle |
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| Malabar pied hornbill |
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| Sloth Bear |
Monkeys are always fascinating. We saw both of species at
Yala. The Gray Langur are plentiful and very easy to see, both in and outside the park. The Toque
Macaque is endemic to the island and a little harder to find. They are fairly common and you
should see them. To get them in the open is another story. They tend to stay in the trees. We were
lucky to see a small group resting with a new-born and the appearance of a mongoose made things
interesting. The mongoose was after the baby and failed to achieve his meal. The adults of the
group saw the mongoose away but if he had got closer to the young one it would have been killed.
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| Gray Langur |
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| Toque Macaque protecting young |
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| Toque Macaque |
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| Mongoose |
An animal that will stop a jeep from a leopard sighting is the King or Stripped Mongoose. These are very rare and rarely seen in the day. As we headed to a sighting we spotted one in the undergrowth we stopped to get views of this stunning animal. He was on the move and quickly headed on his way, as did we.
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| King Mongoose |
Sri Lanka has three types of Civet Cat. Palm, Ring-tail
and the endemic Golden Civet. These are fully nocturnal and if you keep an eye on the road at night or
early morning you may see a Palm or Ring-tail as you travel around. Golden are incredibly rare and
only occur in some localities. We saw Ring-tail Civet and in the evening the roof of our room was
the hunting ground for Palm Civet. Looking closely at night you may see Civets around the hotels.
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| Large male Water Buffalo |
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| Sri Lankan Soft-shelled Turtle |
Even though we were on an exclusive Leopard tour, you can
see we saw and had the opportunity to photograph a variety of different species.
Not all the photos are here but it shows that you can
prioritise Leopard and still see the wonders of 'Wild Sri Lanka'
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