The Largest Animal Ever to Have Existed!

Greetings All,
Our next hike took us through Sri Lanka's famous tea growing country.  Tea plantations were started by the British back in 1847 after their attempt to grow coffee failed due to a blight.  Today tea is still grown in the central highlands in terraced fields.

Tea Plantation

Sri Lanka is the world's fourth largest producer of tea and after Kenya it is the second largest exporter of tea.  The tea growing industry employs over a million people in Sri Lanka.  New green tea leaves are plucked by women who work in the fields 8 hours a day.  Our presence brought a welcome distraction to the monotony of picking tea and a smile to their faces when we stopped to photograph them.

Tea Picker

We stopped at our local guide's house for lunch.  He owns a small farm in the jungle and can grow just about anything.  In the garden around his house were cocoa trees, a few coffee bushes, pineapple, papaya, banana and palm trees.  He demonstrated how to climb a palm tree with just a rag tied around his feet.  He harvested a few coconuts before climbing back down.  He made it look easy but when Stewart tried it he only managed to get a few feet off the ground.  It takes a lot of strength and skill to climb a tree in this fashion.

Our Local Guide Climbing a Palm Tree

To husk the coconut he smashed it on a blade inserted into a wooden board that was stuck into the ground.  Once the outer husk is removed the brown circular coconut that we are all familiar with emerged.

Husking a Coconut

Our hike ended in the dry eastern lowlands where our van was waiting to take us to the beach.  We were all looking forward to some rest and relaxation.  When we arrived we found more of a fishing beach as opposed to a sun bathing and swimming beach.  This area was hit hard by the 2004 Tsunami.  Around 40,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed by this catastrophic event.  It was good to see that the area was recovering.

Beach at Argum Bay

 

The coastal wetlands and rice paddies are a haven for water birds.  We saw egrets, herons, spoonbills, cormorants, jacanas, ibis and stilts on our afternoon walk.



Black-headed Ibis

 
Near the start of our hike were the remnants of a building.  Asanga told us it was a government irrigation control center and that it had been destroyed by the Tamil Tigers during the civil war.  People in this area so feared the Tamil Tigers that they left their homes at night and hid in the forest. 

Government Building Destroyed during the Civil War

The Tamil Tigers were a separatist militant organization based in northern Sri Lanka.  Founded in May 1976 by madman Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a secessionist nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for the Tamil People.   This campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War which ran from 1983 until 2009, when Prabhakaran was killed by the Sri Lankan Military.  It was nice to see that peace and tranquility had returned to the area and that the locals no longer have to live in fear.

The next morning we started heading west back toward Colombo stopping near the town of Tissa  (Tissamaharama) for the night.  We got the opportunity to do one more game drive in Yala National Park. We divided into two jeeps and Marc, Asanga, John and I headed out in one.  This time we entered through the main south gate which was more crowded than the western gate we used 2 weeks earlier.  We were amazed at how much drier the park had become  The elephants were kicking the dry grass into balls and shaking out the dust before eating it.  I hope the animals can survive this drought.  We wondered if the rain we had in Arugam Bay would reach Yala.

Asian Elephant

We drove along the dusty roads with multiple jeeps behind and ahead of us.  At one point we broke away from the pack and came upon a single jeep watching a leopard sitting in a clearing about 200 feet from the road.  Our leopard luck had finally changed!  We were able to observe this beautiful female leopard for a few minutes before she got up and slinked back into the jungle.

Asian Leopard

Ironically, Arran, our guide from our first visit to Yala pulled up in another jeep just moments after the leopard had disappeared.  He was happy that we finally had a good sighting.  Timing is everything!

The next morning we visited the Katagarama Temple complex with Buddhist and Hindu temples and a mosque.  The devotees were preparing for the morning ceremony by bringing baskets of fruit and flowers to offer the deities.  All this uneaten fruit was attracting troops of gray langurs and even the odd cow or two.  At over 2200 years old, the giant white Kiri Vehera stupa was being decorated with a yellow, blue and orange ribbon symbolizing Buddhism while the devotees strolled around clockwise reciting prayers and leaving their offerings.

Kiri Vehera Stupa

We continued our journey toward Colombo stopping at a tiny restaurant for a drink.  A few days earlier Asanga had told us about watching for Blue Whales along Sri Lanka's southern coast.  I just couldn't get the thought of seeing a Blue Whale out of my head.  I asked Asanga where the best place to see Blue Whales was and he replied Mirissa Beach which we would arrive at around noon.  We told him to leave us there and we would delay our Sri Lanka departure for a day.  We were fortunate to get the last room at the hotel that offers whale watching tours and at lunch told the others in our group our plan.  They didn't blame us for wanting to stick around to see the whales.  We said our goodbyes and they headed off to Colombo to catch their flights home.

Early the next morning we headed out of Mirissa Harbor along with a dozen whale-watching boats.

Whale-Watching Boats in Mirissa Bay

We headed south away from the coast for around  9 km them headed east for another 6 km.  After about an hour and a half we still hadn't seen a whale and I began to worry that our change in plans was for naught.  Suddenly the whale-watching boats began to converge and we caught a glance of the spray from a whale before it submerged.  It looked too small to be a Blue Whale and turned out to be a Bryde's Whale, still a new species of whale for us.  We had one more sighting of a Bryde's Whale then headed out in search of the Blues.  Suddenly, our captain spotted the characteristic vertical single-column spout from a Blue Whale!

Blue Whale Spout

All the boats rushed to get a closer look.  You only have a few minutes to reach the whale before he dives again.

Watching a Blue Whale

 

You have to maintain a certain distance but we could see how massive a Blue Whale is.  At 98 feet in length and weighing up to 190 tons, a Blue Whale is the largest known animal ever to have existed!

The Small Dorsal Fin of a Blue Whale

Blue Whales dive up to 330 feet to feed on krill which they filter out of the water with their baleens.  They stay submerged for about 20 minutes then come to the surface to breathe.  When a Blue Whale raises his tail fluke you know he is diving and that the show is over.

Tail Fluke of a Blue Whale

What a grand ending to an amazing three weeks in Sri Lanka!

We hope all is well back home.
Peggy and Marc

Where Have all the Leopards Gone?

Greetings All,
After leaving Myanmar we flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  We had a few days before meeting up with our next trek group so we visited Yala National Park in southern Sri Lanka.  Yala is Sri Lanka's second largest national park and is said to have the largest leopard density in the world.  We set out to explore the park with our guide, Arran, hoping to find a lot of leopards to photograph.

There are plenty of other animals and birds in the park to enjoy.   Yala harbors 44 species of mammals and 215 species of birds including 6 endemics.  One of the first birds we encountered was this Malabar Pied Hornbill.

Malabar Pied Hornbill

We rudely interrupted two land monitor lizards in the process of mating.  They reared up on their hind legs and embraced lovingly or so I thought.



Land Monitor Lizards

There was a lot of hissing going on and when the male started getting rough, the female had enough and made a hasty retreat.  Yala is also home to herds of wild water buffalo.  Around the periphery of the park most of the water buffalo contain genes from domestic stock.

Wild Water Buffalo

The Little Green Bee-eaters were especially prolific.  They flitted back and forth across the road alighting on branches nearby which made for a great photo.

Little Green Bee-eater

There are four species of deer in the park.  By far the most common are the Spotted Deer.  This handsome buck posed nicely for us.

Male Spotted Deer

There are more than 90 species of waterfowl that inhabit Yala's wetlands.  We observed Cattle, Little, Intermediate and Great Egrets, Red and Yellow-wattled Lapwings, Gray heron, Black-headed Ibis, Indian Pond Heron, White-breasted Water Hen, Lesser Whistling ducks and this beautiful Painted Stork.

Painted Stork

The Asian Elephant herds of Yala number from 300 to 350 individuals.  Most of the males are tuskless owing to the British shooting out all the large males with tusks in colonial times.  We did spot Nalaka, one of the few males with tusks.

Nalaka, male Elephant w/Tusks

The breeding herds containing the females with calves were more difficult to spot.  They tended to stay hidden in the jungle.  One small herd of about 7 individuals came out of hiding for a mud bath.  The adults sprayed muddy water on their back to cool down.  A tiny calf tried to emulate mom without much success.  He had not yet mastered the numerous muscles in his tiny trunk.  When the herd left the waterhole we got a good photo.

Asian Elephants

Almost everywhere you look in Yala you see Peafowl.  One Peacock was doing his best to impress a Peahen.  His tail feathers were extended in a brilliantly colored fan which he shakes violently to attract her attention.  At first she seemed interested but soon turned away and strolled off.

Peacock Displaying

There are two species of monkey in Yala.  The Toque Macaque is endemic to Sri Lanka.  They hang around the rest stops looking for an opportunity to steal food.  We managed to hang onto our breakfasts.

Toque Macque

Not wanting to miss anything we spent two full days in the park.  It gets really hot around noon and the animals tend to be less active.  Most people take a break around midday and return to their lodgings to rest.  We found that you can still spot animals when they come to one of the park's many waterholes to drink.

Spotted Deer Drinking at a Waterhole

One of my favorite smaller animals was the Grizzled Giant Squirrel.  They are found only in Sri Lanka and India.  They are near-threatened due to hunting and habitat loss.

Grizzled Giant Squirrel

Another small mammal spotted at dawn and dusk is the common Black-naped Hare.

Black-naped Hare

We were nearing the end of our second full day in the park and had yet to see a leopard.  We were getting desperate.  Others staying at our camp were getting good sightings but we always seemed to arrive minutes too late.  We decided to bend the rules and stay in the park past sunset in the hopes of getting a sighting of one of the cats that had been eluding us the past couple of days.  One of the top guys in the wildlife department, Chandre, was with us so weren't too concerned about staying late.  He wanted to see a leopard as badly as we did.  Finally, success!  A beautiful female leopard slinked out of the jungle to get a drink at a nearly waterhole.  Despite being some distance away and the growing darkness Marc was able to get a descent shot.

Female Asian Leopard

Time to head out of the park before it got much darker!  Thank you Arran, Chandre and our driver Koshala for being so patient and willing to remain in the park for 13 hours two days in a row for us to get good sightings and photos of Yala's elusive inhabitants.

We hope all is well back home,
Peggy and Marc