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Memorable visit to Wilpattu

by Derrick Schokman

Three hearty cheers! What a relief it is to learn that the Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka's largest almost 500 sq miles in extent, has been reopened after several years.

The landscape at Wilpattu is unique, so different to the other national parks. It is all gently undulating terrain without hills or rocky outcrops, dominated by sand-rimmed basins of water called villus, surrounded by green plains rising into high forest.

In all there are 27 villus, well scattered and varying from small rainwater pools to large "tank" type water bodies. Kokkari is the largest with a circumference of 2 to 3 miles.

Wild animals depend on these villus for their water and that's where you will see them. What you have to do is park your vehicle on the roads running down to the villus at the fringe of the forest, and wait for the actors in this jungle theatre to appear and play their parts.

Practically all the villus have substantial collections of spotted deer, sambhur, pig and buffalo. Incidentally Wilpattu has become known for its white deer. Since the 1950s four such animals have been reported, the last one an adult white doe with a normal coloured fawn at heel.

There are also two to three leopards to every villu. Elephants are scarce preferring areas near the Moderagam-aru and Kala-oya rivers that form the Northern and Southern boundaries of the park.

And of course there are plenty of birds. The most common are painted stork, grey heron, cormorant, plover, teal and the snakebird or darter. During the migrant season duck, snipe and godwit may also be seen.

I remember when some friends and I spent a couple of days in the Talawila bungalow at Wilpattu. We had been told that leopards in Wilpattu were far more obliging than their counterparts in other national parks about letting themselves be seen by visitors.

We were not disappointed. At one of the villus - I can't remember whether it was kummutu or Manawila - a fair sized specimen answered our prayers by revealing himself at the far end of the plains margins on the forest.

This feline was hardly distinguishable as he lay on the sand and fallen leaves which provided a wonderful camouflage. But no sooner he started rolling around we were able to get a better focus on him.

Mr Spots then rose up and gazed majestically around, lord of all he could survey, before languidly moving down to drink. He drank a little, then straightened up casually and seemed to be gazing steadily at us.

The sunlight on his tawny coat seemed incandescent like a slow burning fire behind coal dark spots. He bent down again and indulged in a longer session of drinking before finally retiring back stage and allowing the jungle curtain to come down. We hung around hoping that Mr Spots would take an encore. But he failed to return leaving the stage to lesser players.

A brute of a boar soon came down to drink unworried whether Mr Spots was there or not.

A big wild boar is a frightening animal. Few animals are so replete with power as an old singleton like this one with curving tusks. Make the wild boar a bigger animal and he would be lord of the jungle. He is fearless.

After the boar drank its fill and left, a brace of timid deer came down to the water, looking furtively over their shoulders for any sign of their only enemy Pantheru pardus kotiya.

Having enjoyed this jungle charade, it was only natural that on getting back to the bungalow we launched into a discussion on leopards. How did ours compare with the African and Asian species?

Hilary, who was a mine of information on such matters, informed us that the largest leopard kill reported was in Rwanda.

The measurement from nose to tip of tail was 9ft 9 in. A 9ft 3 in specimen had also been reported from India. In comparison the largest leopard in Sri Lanka shot by Bowles was only 8 ft 3 in. I was able to bring these statistics up-to-date, because I was working at the Agricultural Research Station Maha Illuppalama when one Tissera in Eppawela nearby accounted for a 8 ft 6 in specimen and was subsequently prosecuted in the Anuradhapura Courts for having killed a protected animal.

Hilary went on to tell us that although leopards in Sri Lanka are a smaller sub-species of the Asiatic animal, they are comparatively long tailed with a darker pelt and spots smaller than the Indian leopard.

If leopards are the first attraction in Wilpattu, bears are the second. Bear is an umbrella term that covers so many different kinds. There are the polar bears of the Arctic and Antarctic, the huge black and brown bears of Siberia and North America, the Chinese panda and the koala of Australia.

There is also the sloth bear that is found in the lowland forests of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. This is the only bear that carries its cubs on its back because they are blind for the first three weeks.

Mahinda, a friend of Lyn de Alwis, a former Director of Wildlife Conservation, had this story for us which he had heard before from Lyn:

There was a mother bear who used to roam the Nelun-Kumbuk-Kokkari triangle with her two cubs. When visitors approached, the cubs would leap on to the mother's back and sit there one behind the other. They were a popular side show for several months.

Also unique to the sloth bear is its preferred diet of ants and termites. Now this was something we had the good fortune to see. On the road to Kok Mottai the wildlife guide drew our attention to our local bruin rummaging among some termite mounds.

We watched transfixed as with the finesse of a pangolin or scaly ant-eater (kebellawa) the bear tore open a mound with his claws and pushed his long snout into the hole to suck up a meal with loud "slurps". The bear's long shaggy coat served as a protection against the biting ants. We were lucky to witness this tableau because bears are usually shy customers, except during berry time.

Like leopards, bears are also not given to community living. They are loners except during the breeding season - that is when they become very noisy, the males fighting one another for female favours.

Here is another one of Lyn de Alwis anecdotes, just what we need to round off this memorable flashback to Wilpattu. Its location was Kokkari where visitors in a car got mixed up with one of these bear contests.

Two male candidates were battling it out, when suddenly one of them took to his heels galloping up to the car and leaping over its bonnet to escape in the scrub on the other side, leaving the occupants dumbfounded with surprise and fear. I'm sure we would have felt the same if around 1000 kg of a devilish looking creature suddenly materialised in front of the windscreen?

A last word. Timing is of the essence if you want to get the best results from a day's outing in Wilpattu. As a general rule you need to allow for 50 to 60 miles of "jeeping" while you probe the windows of wildlife in the villus.

I suggest that you get started around 8 am after a hearty breakfast. You will be greeted by the clarion calls of jungle cocks challenging one another.

They sound very much like "Jock Jorge Joyce". Return to the bungalow for lunch or whatever other arrangements you make. Go out again around 3 pm and get back to the bungalow before nightfall.

Then you can enjoy that well deserved drink (whatever you fancy) while you mull over the day's experiences with your family or friends, and then decide to come back again to make up for what you might have missed.
Good luck!

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