Exploring One of the Most Biodiverse Places on Earth—My Month Among Sri Lanka’s Wildlife
I love wildlife and jungles more than anything. Witnessing an animal in the wild takes my breath away every single time. So, I’m constantly looking for new destinations to see the animals.
When a fellow wildlife lover friend told me she’d never experienced such density as in Sri Lanka, I felt ready to book my flight in an instant.
Sri Lanka is a somewhat lesser-known destination in Asia. When people think of Asian wildlife, they usually think of Borneo. Well, I’ve looked for wildlife in Borneo, too, and Sri Lanka wins without doubt.
Geographically, Sri Lanka’s tropical climate is ideal for wildlife. But it’s truly thanks to the local people that so much wildlife remains.
The majority of Sri Lankans are Buddhists and vegetarians. As they don’t eat cows or pigs, there’s no need to clear forests to raise livestock – and food for livestock. This, I believe, is the main reason animal density remains so high.
Moreover, Sri Lankans also deeply respect animals. I never saw roadkill (despite animals being everywhere), and once, I saw a hotel owner gently rescue a bird that flew inside and released it with great care. That tells you everything.
It depends on what kind of wildlife you want to see. For the highest wildlife density, head south.
Southern Sri Lanka, close to the equator, is hot, humid, and perfect for wild animals. Not many know that Sri Lanka has a rainforest: the Sinharaja Forest Reserve. We visited it and saw many animals during our hike.
For larger animals, travel further North. In the grasslands and central areas, you’ll find elephants, deers, and monkeys.
I usually like to arrange everything myself when I travel, but during my first week in Sri Lanka, I was hesitant to rent my own vehicle.
However, relying on drivers limited our flexibility, especially when you want to see wildlife, and you have no destination in mind to tell the driver. After observing traffic for a few days, we realized it does look fine to navigate in it. At last, we felt confident to drive on our own.
The local vehicle of Sri Lankans is the Bajaj tuk tuk, so we decided to rent a tuk tuk and drive like local people do.
Renting a tuk tuk in Sri Lanka turned out to be the best decision. It was easy to drive, saved us money, but most of all, gave us the freedom to explore on our own.From our tuk tuk, we even spotted wild elephants while driving through grasslands near Sigiriya.
Especially in the south, once we left the busy areas, we saw a new species every few seconds: giant squirrels, hornbills, snakes, kingfishers, monkeys, peacocks, turtles, frogs – anything you can imagine in the tropics.
Rekawa Beach is a great spot to see wildlife in the south.
In addition, around April-May, many migratory birds arrive from India to feed as water levels drop in the lakes, making fish easy to catch.
Most travelers come for the big wildlife: elephants, leopards, crocodiles, even bears. This 10 Days in Sri Lanka Itinerary covers the best places for wildlife encounters.
We saw many wild elephants. They can be spotted at many places, including the Yala National Park and the Sigiriya region. Around Sigiriya, even from our tuk tuk, we could see them from the roads. Sri Lanka also has the world’s highest elephant density.
Leopards are harder to see, as they tend to hide. Fun fact: Sri Lankan leopards are the largest in the world and are often seen relaxing on rocks, as they have no predators and there is plenty of prey around.
Crocodiles live in freshwater, but are sometimes seen in the sea (among surfers) or salty lagoons.
Also, Sri Lanka is one of the few places where you might spot blue whales, the largest mammals on Earth. Boats go out daily from the south. We weren’t lucky enough to see them, but it’s possible.
Is it scary to be surrounded by wildlife? Not at all. We just took simple precautions.
In the elephant counties, we didn’t go out after dark, especially not on foot. We also avoided carrying food with us to prevent attracting animals like monkeys. (With so many local eateries, you really don’t need to bring food with you.)
Crocodile zones have clear signs, and locals assured us these shy creatures usually stay hidden. Believe me, we were looking for them, but did not see any.
During our one month in Sri Lanka and actively looking for wildlife, we never had any issues.
It is a perfect example where people live in harmony with nature – once we saw a huge snake crossing the street, and the locals did not even blink. The animals are not the enemy to them, and they respect all creatures.
During this month, I fell in love with Sri Lanka: seeing how Sri Lanka protects its forests simply by not raising meat animals was eye-opening. For once, it became clear to me how much of an impact it has if a nation as a whole decides to be vegetarian. There are so many delicious foods to replace meat with, so it taught me a great lesson. And I believe the world could learn from Sri Lankans, too.
I am already planning my next visit to Sri Lanka as it has become one of my favorite travel destinations.
Besides the animals, when I think of Sri Lanka, I think of the local people. Sri Lankans are the kindest people, and I am grateful for all the connections I had with them.
They are such welcoming, warm-hearted people – many times we got invited to locals` homes who were simply that friendly. In the developed countries, this kind of hospitality is rare.
wanderwithalex
