The animals of Sri Lanka

Hi everyone,

One of the things that you won’t be able to miss ones you visit Sri Lanka is the beautiful nature and the animals around you. The more places you visit, the more animals you can see, and I don’t mean those animals seen in the natural park during jeep safari, but the wild ones freely around you. 

I also want to add that someone visiting Sri Lanka does not automatically mean you will see all of these animals (mainly not if you stay in your luxury beach resort hihi). I’m here for 6 weeks now, traveling around the country, so I can say these are the most commonly spotted species by me. Also this might not be the nicest topic ever, but let’s keep it real right?! :)

1. Gecko

This is the animal that you can see literally everywhere. In the house, in the garden, on the road, even in your 5 star hotels and restaurants. They are really quick and fast moving animals so there is no point on "trying to get rid of them", the maximum you can do is to try and make them move further from you. They usually appear after sunset, so if you enter your room and switch on the lights, be prepared to see few of them running away as you just scared them. They are not dangerous, obviously they won’t attack you (at least I hope so), but sometimes when they get scared and they are somewhere on the ceiling they might fall :D Last week I was entering the bathroom in the hotel and after switching the lights on one of them just landed right in from of me on the sink. So it might be a good idea to check the ceiling before you switch on the lights or move in the dark, to be sure no chilling gecko is above you to accidentally fall on you ;)

NOTE: To my sister who is planning to visit me and had a panic attack last time she saw a gecko in Egypt. I’m sorry Kuni you won’t be able to avoid them coz they are literally everywhere... but I will make sure to enter the room before you ;)

2. Squirrel

Squirrel posing for my camera :)

This animal is common in my country (Slovakia) as well, but the behavior of it is waaay more different. The Palm Squirrel which is typical for Sri Lanka has 3 nice stripes on its back and they can be seen anywhere: in the park, around the house, around historical sites, on the streets, etc. As I know the Slovakian type they would disappear ones they spot a human, but the Sri Lankan ones are different, they would literally stare at your camera so you can take some nice pictures of them. They are very friendly and not shy at all.  They always scare me when I'm at the balcony of my room coz they just appear and run and jump up and down close to you all the time :)

3. Monitor Lizard

This lizard was posing just next to the road!!!

Now we are getting to the category which I don’t like but gotta talk about it coz its present here. If someone doesn’t know how this animal looks like, it’s something like an oversized ugly gecko, almost like a huge snake with legs :D (I’m sorry I was never good at animal biology). The nasty part of the animal for me is, that it’s constantly sticking out his V- shaped tongue, the same way as snakes do. I understand that it has some biological reasons, but the look is simply disgusting. Local people say these animals can move really quickly and when they feel threatened they can even bite you.... well that was enough for me to run back to the bus (after I took my picture) and not try to make any friendship with this animal :D

Srilankan man with his anaconda :D

I need to say although there are almost a hundred types of snakes in Sri Lanka I had the luck of seeing none of them! Except the "domestic cobras and anacondas", which are shown by the local guys as a tourist attraction. So luckily I don’t need to add them to this list!!!!!

4. Flying fox a.k.a The monster bat

This is definitely the scariest animal for me in Sri Lanka. As much as I don’t fancy snakes, and bugs or spiders, the only animal giving me a panic attack is a bat. I have this crazy "blond girl" fear that it will get stuck in my hair and I need to cut it off :D :D :D (yeah I realize it’s crazy, but I can’t help).

I remember when I was in Greece in 2011 one evening I realized I had a tiny bat in my kitchen (which was separating my room from the main door) so I couldn’t leave the apartment.  I stayed frozen not even able to move. After half hour I pushed my limits and became a big girl; took a towel on my head and run out of the house :D

Almost like a Christmas tree with decoration :D

So the flying fox looks exactly like a bat, but it’s several times bigger. It has a body and face as a fox but wings as a bat. They are huge, a usual wingspan can be around 1,5 m!!!! During night time you can see them everywhere (not just in the nature, but in the city center, around the hotels, restaurant). Hanging from the trees and flying around, you can actually spot hundreds of this animals all together hanging from one tree, it’s crazy! Even though I know they only feed on nectars and fruits I’m still scared as hell every time I spot them.

5. Monkey

Monkey family posing in Sigiriya

This topic has some ups and downs. As much as I think it’s interesting to watch the behavior and movements of monkeys (as they seem to be very similar to people) I do also have a kinda "respect" towards them. So I would never touch or feed them, but will take my distance to observe them. 

You can spot monkeys in the nature, also when you go to see historical sites (like Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa or Dambulla) or even in some cities on the streets. Every time when I visit the historical places I tell to my clients - tourist- not to bring any food with them, mainly not any bananas. Last time in Sigiriya I saw a group of monkeys chasing a French guy, they were following him everywhere. In the end one of them just jumped on the backpack of the poor guy, unzipped it and took out all the bananas he had. After they got what they wanted, they left peacefully :D If you know the Minion movie and the typical going crazy coz they see BANANAS :D you can see a live version of that with monkeys here ;)

                                           Monkeys in the streets of Kandy

The typical monkey in Sri Lanka is the Macaque or Macaca, usually with white stomach and brown back. There are some local guys who would call them closer with food and they offer to the tourist to join them (of course for some tips in the end). I still think it can be dangerous sometimes. This monkeys ain't nice! So if they don’t get what they want, or the food is not enough they might just scratch you or be aggressive, and I’m not trying to get to the hospital with some crazy infection :D That’s why I like to observe them from distance. They are not on my animal- friend list either :)

 

                                 Playing monkeys on the stairs in Dambulla

6. Dog

Sleeping dogs in Anuradhapura

This topic is a bit different than the usual cute pet story. Most of the dogs that you can see in Sri Lanka are not family pets, they don’t have any owners. They are wild dogs living on the streets, making a lot of troubles for the drivers (they think they are the kings of the road so they would just walk up and down all the time). But daytime you can usually see them chilling or sleeping anywhere possible. First time I saw them I was even scared they are sick or dead, but they are just lazy as hell :D People say locals would give them some food sometimes to keep them around, coz dogs keep the snakes away so it’s a win-win situation.

7. Cow

Well everybody knows this animal and there is nothing strange or interesting happening with cows in Sri Lanka. Except one thing, they are simply anywhere. And I don't mean that there are big grass areas and meadows around so they can freely walk around, I mean that cows here are on the streets, in the city, in the Capital of the country. They just walk around freely and as there are around 13% Hindus living in this country (cows are sacred animals in Hindu religion) people in general just respect them and won’t even hunk on them to move. When it comes to cows everyone need to be patient and let them rule the world. Even a bus full of people would either wait or course around them rather than hunk or scream at them.

8. Elephant

This is the category that is the most interesting for many of the tourist, as well as for me.  In my personal opinion it’s a sin to leave Sri Lanka without seeing this amazing animal. There are a lot of options, but basically you can see elephants in 3 places/ways:

Wild elephants in Minneriya National Park

1.) Wild animals - during jeep safari in national parks (you can spot a group from 5-10 up to 50 or more elephants)

2.) Domestic animals - there are a lot of places with trained animals ready to offer you a ride on the back of the elephant. I don’t really fancy this way coz some of the elephant trainers can be really rude and harsh on the animals. On the other hand I saw guys who had a kinda "friendship" going on with the elephants so the animal would listen to the orders just by the voice of the trainer and the guy would take good care of the animal and treat it nicely. Of course as a tour guide in this country I tried the elephant ride also, but the more I see it the more I don’t agree with it, but it’s a huge part of the tourist attractions, so there is no way around it 

Domestic elephant used for riding  

3.) Elephant orphanage- here are the animals which got sick, injured or rejected from the herd. Tourist can come every day to watch them bath in the river and see the baby elephant feeding.

The interesting part of seeing this animals is when it’s unexpected. Crazy things can happen, as elephant passing by in a temple or on the street in the city, but the best is when you travel around national parks and they "get lost" and come to the road. Than the whole traffic stops, everybody taking pictures and try to let the wild animal go on his own way back to the nature.

The most beautiful part of the elephants are definitely its eyes. In their case it can be really true that the eyes are the windows to their soul. When they look at you, it just hits you. Mainly in the elephant parks where they are under human control, you can directly say who is in pain and who is in good care.

Wild elephant crossing the road 

                                   Thank you for catching up with me, 

                             your comments and questions are welcome :)