Bye for now

Bye for now

We spent two days inside the Wilpattu national park with only glimpses of leopards without proper photo opportunities and we were not happy. We had to leave that day, so we packed and started heading back with heavy hearts. Half way to the park exit, we suddenly saw a black spot, that looked like an…

Tipsy bear

Tipsy bear

One morning inside the Yala national park, we came across a sloth bear on a palu (Manilkara hexandra) tree. It spent a good amount of time pulling branches and snacking on juicy yellow palu fruits. They say eating excessive amounts of this fruit, gives you an intoxicating effect. We believe this bear got ‘tipsy’ after…

Gemunu

Gemunu

On one evening inside the Yala national park, we ran in to a mini traffic jam, where all the safari vehicles were stopped. We were told it was because of “Gemunu”, the lone tusker who was notorious for demanding food from passing vehicles. We had seen Gemunu in our previous visits to Yala. Our safari…

Missed Prey

Missed Prey

When we were traveling along the banks of a water body one evening in the Wilpattu national park, a serpent eagle suddenly dashed in front of our vehicle and landed on the edge of the water. Puzzled by what we saw, we looked to see that the eagle was trying to capture a land monitor….

First Flight

First Flight

One afternoon, inside the Wilpattu national park, we came across this monarch bird’s nest, which has a distinctive cone shape. There were two chicks in the nest, and two adults were hovering around them. We stopped to watch the commotion and realized that they were teaching the chicks to fly out of the nest. While…

Let me rest

Let me rest

One morning inside the Yala national park, we saw a leopard that was sitting on an open grassy field, going in to a nearby wooded area as we approached. We circled around the wooded lot and saw that it was feasting on a kill. After some time, the leopard came out of the woods and…

Gaze

Gaze

While driving along the tracks of the Yala national park in the evening, we came across this young leopard cub perched on a tree branch that gave us the opportunity to take many photographs. Later only we realized that in this photo, no matter from which angle one looked, you simply cannot escape its gaze….

Good Try

Good Try

One early morning, when we were returning to the bungalow after our pre-breakfast roaming inside the Yala national park, we came across this leopard who seemed to be preying on another animal. We put our hunger aside and waited to see what was going to happen. The leopard was aiming at a rabbit. It had…