New Report: Sri Lanka

Here’s a short report from Jilly Hancock who was in Sri Lanka recently and had a great time.

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I travelled to Sri Lanka at the end of March a trip organised by Jonathan at Reef & Rainforest Tours and the Bird and Wildlife team in Colombo, with the brilliant guide Dulan Ranga.

I am primarily a feline addict, looking for the fishing cat, jungle cat and rusty spotted cat, but am interested in all wildlife.

We were very fortunate in our sightings. In Willpatu we had 2 wonderful  15- 20 min close sightings of leopard – all to ourselves, which is the way I prefer to see animals and just watch. I was introduced into the world of bats seeing a dozen different species.

As my targets were nocturnal we were out night and day – not much sleep, but it was well worth it.
We saw grey slender loris in Sigiriya and red slender loris at Kitugala, Civets including the golden and brown and all the squirrels, mongoose and monkey  species as well as yellow and white striped chevrotain. also multiple sightings of sambar, chital, muntjac, both types of buffalo and of course the Asian elephant plus birds galore.

When it came to my cats, yes, we had some wonderful sights. Several of the very nervous fishing cat, including one sitting over a small isolated pool of fish trapped by the drying water bed. A rusty spotted cat we followed  on foot for some time over the fields in the dark.  also a number of jungle cats and possibly F1 hybrids.

An absolutely magical trip especially as it was in the early days of the island problems, it progressed without a hitch.  There is so much to see in Sri Lanka and its hospitable people.  It was well planned and very efficient.

Jilly Hancock