The country’s most popular and rewarding national park, home to birds, monkeys, crocodiles and elephants, as well as the island’s largest population of leopards.With monkeys smashing through the trees, peacocks in their finest gowns and crafty panthers sliding like shadows through the undergrowth, Yala National Park is the Jungle Book brought to brilliant life. This vast district of dry forest and open patches of prairies is the enormous draw of this corner of Sri Lanka, yet despite the fact that its a long way from Kenya, a safari here is certainly well worth regardless of exertion and cost.
With around 25 leopards thought to be present in Block I alone, Yala is considered one of the world’s best parks for spotting these big cats.The best time to spot leopards is February to June or July.Despite having around 300 elephants, they tend to keep away from the most visited parts of the park .Sambars, spotted deer, boars, crocodiles,buff aloes, mongooses and monkeys are here in their hundreds.Around 215 species of birds have been recorded at Yala, many of which are visitors escaping the northern winter
Yala is a very popular park, perhaps too popular, and with little control on vehicle numbers the whole place can become something of a circus at busy times of the year.As well as herds of wildlife, Yala contains the remains of a once-thriving human community. A monastic settlement, Situlpahuwa, appears to have housed 12,000 inhabitants.
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