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 :) |
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
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.
6. Dog
Sleeping dogs in Anuradhapura |
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.
Thank you for catching up with me,
your comments and questions are welcome :)