Leopards in Yala
For more than a century, Yala National Park in Sri Lanka has been one
of Asia's most celebrated wildlife preserves, a lush windswept tropical
forest rich in rare aquatic birds and abundant with ferocious predators,
such as crocodiles and sloth bears. But only in very recent years has
Yala's big cat distinction been brought to light: It contains one of the
world's largest concentrations of leopards.
Yala Park lies along the semi arid south-eastern coast and is Sri
Lanka's most popular leopard park. Divided into five blocks the park
routinely receives day visitors into Block One, and into other blocks by
special permission. The official estimate for the island's leopard
population hovers between 700 and 1000 individuals while a more precise
estimate available for Block One counts just twenty breeding adults plus
their cubs, on average, two cubs per litter; however take into account
that only about fifty percent of the cubs survive.
Central Province leopards
Central Province leopards are used to a cooler, wetter climate than
in Yala and also have a different diet.
Yala leopards eat mostly axis deer, wild boar, buffalo and sambhur
deer whereas Central Province leopards feed essentially on barking deer,
porcupine and wild boar, while higher up in the mountains sambhur deer
becomes their main staple.
Ranging routes for both groups are not specifically known though
terrain hypothetically allows Central Province leopards to travel south
from around Kandy to reach the Peak's wildlife sanctuary while Yala
leopards have the possibility to some degree to travel northward.
Forests on mountain summits is often broken up in patches by tea
plantations and home garden agriculture areas which leopards nonetheless
cross to reach other forested zones.
Successful use of cultivated terrain is a testimony to the cat's
adaptation and stealth. There are a few human victims resulting from the
proximity between leopard and man, and in seven or eight years, only two
incidents near the Horton Plains were reported.
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