Yala is Sri Lanka's most well known national park. Not the largest or oldest, but it's in a dry region, so the animals are easy to see.

Reuben is ready to go! Unfortunately, he was forced to stay at home.

It's about a three-hour drive to Yala. We did indeed see peacocks on the way! The peacock is actually the national bird of India and not Sri Lanka, but there are still a lot of them here.

Approaching our lodge, a sign of recent sightings on the road!

"Here, let me show you to your tent. For the children, let me just tell you, never mind the termite mound. We sometimes have the king cobra coming out of the holes and crossing the path. But it is quite rare. Maybe only one time or two times per week."

One of our two 'tent's. These were apparently designed in South Africa, and had kind of a steampunk vibe to them.

Our safari guide, Sameera! He was great. He is from Sri Lanka, but trained in guiding in South Africa, staying at Ngala for several months. The safari world in SL is definitely growing, but not well developed.

First night: we went on a short nature walk near the lodge. Here, Astro is checking out some footprints -- mostly deer and water buffalo.

Elephant poop! It is very undigested.

OK, this was not expected! In Africa, there are African Wild Dogs who are extremely efficient pack animals. And in SL, we have a handful of wild puppies, who live near the lodge.

Elephant footprint!

Deer poop. OK, there were a lot of Spotted Deer. They look just like your normal backyard deer, except you see them from a safari vehicle.

Astro found a porcupine quill! No porcupines, though.

Walking back to the lodge, people are having dinner outside. It's super-pleasant. Yala is right next to the beach. No swimming, but some great waves.

The lodge restaurant.

At dinner, outside.

Thank you Astro, for taking this great picture of me!

Next morning: getting up early to go on our first safari drive! There's Orion setting above the walkway.

Getting a quick snack before we leave.

Sunrise over the ocean to the southeast.

A familar sight to safari-goers: a parklng lot full of Toyota pickup trucks converted with seats in the back, starting their engines at sunrise! It's been a long time since were were on safari.

Vehicles approaching the entrance gate at Yala. Our lodge was about a 5-minute drive from the entrance.

More wild dogs! OK, not real wild dogs, but dogs that were wild. These were quite friendly, and liked to hang out at the entrance gate.

Entrance station!

Yala is Sri Lanka's most famous national park. We were in Block 1, which is the most heavily used.

Sunrise!

Our first of many peacocks.

Wild boar!

Aww... Sunbird! Flycatcher! Bee-eater! We saw them in South Africa a lot.

Orange-Breasted Green Pigeon?

Jackals! OK, they were mating. Finn: "That jackal really doesn't like that other one, does it?"

Hornbills! Very popular in Sri Lanka, and with good reason. They are often in pairs, and you can see the difference: see the circle around the eye on one to the ring.

A stealthy crocodile!

Crocodiles co-exist quite peacefully with other animals. The croc doesn't stand a chance of catching these birds, who would take off. Intstead, the crocs mostly go after fish, frogs, and other water animals. This croc is bringing its head out of the water to swallow a fish that it just caught.

UPDATE! OK, a month after this was taken, we were on safari with Piper, and she found a crocodile WITH AN EGRET IN ITS MOUTH! It was super-exciting.

Spoonbill! Though only one -- oftentimes they are in pairs.

Check it out -- a mongoose! These ones are famous for killing cobras. We didn't see any of that, but we did see a lot of mongeese.

Land monitor! Yes, we saw a lot of these. They are just as awesome as they look. Typical size is about four feet to the tip of the tail.

Another land monitor, this one looking for bugs in some aging elephant poop.

Nice beautiful monitor lizard!

OK, who made this hole in the ground?

Land monitor! It was searching for insects or animals, and dug a huge hole to chase them. Go monitor lizard go!

Peacock!

Hoopooeepoo! We saw this one in South Africa frequently as well.

Weaverbird in a nest! So, close, because it was literally hanging over the road, where the truck could almost hit it (we did not).

One thing I didn't expect: peacocks actually fly! They don't go long distances, but they certainly do gain elevation. They often go up to the tops of trees to sleep in safety.

Peacock! OK, everyone has seen peacocks before, woo-hoo. But they are still bizarrely awesome. Most of the time the feathers are down. This one was doing a mating dance. Only the second time our guide had seen the mating!

OK, so the main activity in going on safari is driving in circles, and waiting for someone to say "Look! Over there!" Here Astro has found something interesting.

Another main activity of safari-going: snacks!

Holy moly! OK, we were driving past this dead tree, and our driver stopped and pointed. This is a Spectacled Cobra, which slithered up the tree, did a u-turn, and came back down. It was probably looking for a small mammal to eat.

Its neck is not expanded, but this is the standard kind of cobra that is used for snake charming, and so forth. The 'hood' is behind the eyes, and visible as darker, flatter lines here.

These are pretty rare to see! Our guide said it was the first time in three months he'd seen one.

First time: leopard prints! Yala is well known for leopards. These are pretty recent, since they're on top of the tire tracks. And also see down the middle of the photo: peacock prints!

Piper is the best in the world at tracking animals, and I so wished that she was here! She would have loved it. I apologize for all of the print photos, but I couldn't resist.

Water Buffalo! OK, so the deal is that these are effectively 'wild' now, but most of them were introduced to Sri Lanka from India about 100 years ago. Apparently skulls of the 'original' Sri Lankan water buffalo have been found, which are slightly different from the current animals. There is some genetic research going on in the country to try to explore the differences, and (with luck) find some of the original herd that has not been crossbred.

Ooo! Butterflies, coming for salt at the edge of a puddle.

Finn did a lot of binocularing.

So does Heidi!

Yep, they're deer. Spotted deer.

Monkeys! OK, grey langurs aka Hanuman langurs. Occasionally we see these in Colombo, but more often away from downtown. These are -- technically speaking -- an endemic species, and thus only found in Sri Lanka. But they were only declared endemic in the early 2000s, when one langur specie was declared to actually be seven different species. These are unique because of their tufted eyebrows, apparently.

Those spikes are not forming much of a defense mechanism! The langur is carefully removing all of the leaves despite the pokiness.

Oh, and really nice eyebrows, langur!

Elephant time! There are about 7000 wild elephants in Sri Lanka, with perhaps 1/10 of those in Yala. We saw a lot. Poaching is not as big an issue here as it is in Africa -- being on an island no doubt helps that.

Finn with an elephant!

Nothing beats a nicely backlit party of elephants. We watched them for a long time, and they were awesome.

I love seeing those hairs on the chin!

Bath time. This ellie was special, because it had a GPS tracking collar. They're not used by the park to locate them for safaris, but the paths are used for research. The elephants are 'wild' and Yala is not fenced, so they can go in and out of the park freely.

Back in Colombo, I talked with an elephant researcher who is using GPS data to keep the elephants out of human-inhabited areas. It would be a geofence + shock collar work? That's what they're investigating.

Baby elephant!

Baby elephant!

Yala's famous 'Elephant Rock.' (It makes an appearance in the movie several frames up as well.)

Yes!! This is famous Jungle Fowl of Sri Lanka. It is actually the ancestor of the modern domesticated chicken.

Sameera.

We admittedly spent a *long* time in the safari vehicle. We stayed for three nights, and had five drives, some up to 5h long. Astro and Finn did came for all of them and did a great job. And they were still super enthusiastic for finding the ultimate goal: a sloth bear.

More snacking!

Each vehicle gets registered as it enters the park. The limit is 650 vehicles per day at this entrance. We came just as things were starting to re-open from the COVID lockdown, and the numbers were about 350 vehicles daily. So, it's an awful lot of trucks, and it makes it hard to have a wilderness experience at some times. There are huge lines, and a lot of diesel.

However, the upside is that Sri Lankans get to see their own natural heritage. In South Africa, most of the parks were more exclusive, and/or more remote. The vast majority of South Africans had probably (my guess) never seen an actual rhino. But in Sri Lanka, if 1 million people per year come to Yala, there's a sizeable chunk of the population who can actually see leopards and elephants in the wild.

Our goal for the trip was, admittedly, to find a sloth bear. After four drives, we still hadn't. This decal of a sloth bear was the closest we were going to come, it seemed.

Ooo!! Looks like there must be an animal ahead.

Ooo! Large lenses come out, becuase there is a leopard sighting! Yala is particularly famous for leopards. We did see this one walk along the road -- see the video. But with this many people, it wasn't quite a wilderness setting.

Later, the leopard (or another one -- I forget) made it up into a tree.

In South Africa, leopards always carry their prey up into the tree with them, to keep it away from the hyenas. But here it is apparently not necessary, because there are no hyenas!

Tree leopard. Lots of lichen, less leopard.

And hang on -- one more leopard! This one was just as we were driving out. Can you find it??

There it is!! Right on the rock at the center.

Heading out the road to the Yala exit. It's a long road, with hundreds of trucks all rushing to meet the 6:30 closing time.

Nice water buffalo in the sunset! With a buffalo-bird on one of them.

Sunset with elephants!

Finally at the gate!

Astro somehow found the "world's longest french fry" on her plate. I'm baffled.

Egg hopper!! My favorite Sri Lankan food (well, one of many). It has everything Sri Lankan: rice, coconut, eggs, and a spicy sauce.

I don't know what Astro is doing, but she is probably playing some sort of joke. BECAUSE SHE ALWAYS IS!

A bit of sundowner action before dinner. That's Jupiter overhead.

ELEPHANT IN THE CAMP!! OK, this is crazy. We came back from our last evening drive, and saw elephant poop on the road near the camp -- looks like they have been near. As we walk into camp, it turns out that there is one Ellie who was in camp earlier that day. She came in and hung out on the beach for some time, and pushed over a picnic table, apparently.

We were finishing up dinner, and the security guards came by. Elephant is walking around camp! She was just meandering, eating some leaves. "She usually comes here about once a week. Last time, she stayed about five hours."

In South Africa, I'd always wanted to do some night-time wildlife photography. This barely counts, but here we have it: an elephant, with Jupiter and Saturn, at night. I didn't have my camera, but H had her iPhone 12 Large, which has a better night-time mode than mine.

Yala is not fenced, and animals are free to come and go as they like. This area (including the hotels) is definitely their territory

Final drive: for maximum wildlifing action, we got there early, before the park opened at 6 AM. We were about 10th in line. Here is Sameera climbing back in, ready to go. This is our fifth safari drive, and WE STILL HAVE NOT SEEN A SLOTH BEAR!

OK. The park opens at 6 AM, and it's now 6:06 AM AND WE ARE WATCHING A SLOTH BEAR CROSS THE ROAD!!! It is so exciting. We have been looking for sloth bears for years (in India, plus SL) and never found one. We have been sloth bear obsessed. AND NOW WE FOUND ONE!!

It crosses the road. It looks really cute. It looks identical (in shape, size, and dirtiness) to a stuffed bear that Piper had named 'Buttley.'

Here's the sloth bear!! It crossed the road, then sat down. Now it's scratching itself.

All these people got to see the sloth bear!!

Sloth bear tracks!

Sloth bear poop, from eating berries.

Sameera: "Ooo! That.... is a python. Or it was a python. Not a cobra -- they wiggle back and forth. This is a very large one."

I forget what this track is.

OK, this was really cool. Final big sighting was a Hawk Eagle, devouring an egret that it had caught. We didn't see it make the kill, but we must've been there soon after, since we arrived before the guts were visible. Here, the eagle is still working on taking off the feathers, and then it will pull the meat out.

Hawk eagle egret!

Do not take my egret!

Super tasty bird! Now the Hawk Eagle is down to the good parts.

Pond Heron, caught a tadpole!!

Back at the lodge, we head out with Sameera for a quick walk around the beach to find more tracks.

Oooo!! These are elephant trunk prints, in the sand!

Elephants were walking on the beach!! OK, that's easy to believe: we saw the ellie in camp last night, so it was definitely in the area. It's hard to tell, but this sand is pretty steep. I'm surprised the ellie could make it up.

Peacock bird prints.

Porcupine prints.

Mushrooms love wetness. How does a mushroom survive on the beach -- where it is dry and sandy? "Well, you see the lump in the distance, behind it? That's elephant poop." And sure enough -- that's what was supporting this mushroom as well. So cool!

This hare did not make it. Maybe it was trying to cross the ocean? Who knows.

Watching the tide come in and out over the rocks.

Astro found a crab! (Well, she found many many of them.)

Crab!!

Sameera tosses that elephant dung into the air!

Piper is off in college studying (among other things) dinosaur footprints. I so wish she could be out here looking at monitor lizard tracks! I bet there is so much you can learn about the life of a monitor lizard simply by studying these tracks here.

Cacti on the beach.

Footrpints of an Indian Gerbil! They are quite common, but only out at night so we didn't see them.

More elephant evidence. "So I want you to guess: boy or girl?"

Dune-jumping!

Sameera with our driver.

And finally, back to Reuben. Reuben would have had a great time chazing all the animals, but probably would not have done well against the sloth bear.

OK! Well, sitting in our tent was this book, "Ceylon and its Capabilities: An Account of its Natural Resources, indigenous Productions, and Commercial Facilities." This was essentially a decadal report performed by JW Bennett, reporting back to the British on how their colony was doing c. 1843. It's fascinating, and I can't resist including a few excellent passages.

Here's a great passage about the author being hoodwinked into purchasing a defanged cobra from a street vendor.

"Europeans cannot be too cautious in purchasing Cobras from itinernant snake charmers!"

"I forced open the animal's mouth, and extracted the fangs and poison ducts from its jaw, which having done, I flung the snake into the air with all my force, and afterwrads replaced it in the basket where it had been kept; there it lived for several months... Feeling certain that the charmer had shown one snake and sold another, I caused every search to be made for the imposter, but he had long previously left the island."

A classic account of an encounter betweeen a mongoose and a cobra!

"[The mongoose] returned in about five minutes and re-entered the areana. It showed no fear... the Mongoose suddenly crouched with its nose close to the ground, and sprung forward within the twinkling of an eye, and fastened its teeth in the back of the Cobra's neck... the little animal maintained its hold until the snake became completely exhausted, when giving it a farewell shake, it relinquished the Cobra, but only as life departed."

Mention of the sloth bear ("A very awkward acquaintance, unless one is well armed.")

Regarding elephants,

"There is no probability of any visible decrease in the immense herds of wild elephants... where it is not uncommon for a single sportsman to kill several before breakfast, and some have been known to bag from 40 to 50 in a week."

And a strange mention of two-toed tree sloths! None of the guides I've talked to in Sri Lanka know anything about this. Are there any sloths here? Were there ever? It's hard to search for -- every online search for "Sri Lanka Sloth" of course returns pages of hits for sloth bears. And hang on -- what sort of good British sportsman would want to go target shooting for sloths??

Of the lesser animals, the most worthy of powder and shot, exclusively of those already named, are the Sloth with two toes... this animals is much smaller than the South American sloth (b. Tridactylus).