About this holiday
Sri Lanka opened the world's first wildlife sanctuary more than 2,000 years ago. Today, about 12 per cent of the island is national park or protected sanctuaries, encompassing wetlands, dry wilderness and virgin rainforest. It's a country of rich biodiversity, with amazing areas like UNESCO's Sinharaja rainforest home to species found nowhere else on Earth.
Yet wildlife in Sri Lanka is under constant threat from human encroachment. Tourism helps protect these wild habitats because it provides an income to people living on the fringes of national parks.
How you can help
DO support the national parks to provide work for local people
DON’T use a torch, wear light clothing or make noise on turtle beaches – you’ll disrupt nesting.
About this holiday
Sri Lanka opened the world's first wildlife sanctuary more than 2,000 years ago. Today, about 12 per cent of the island is national park or protected sanctuaries, encompassing wetlands, dry wilderness and virgin rainforest. It's a country of rich biodiversity, with amazing areas like UNESCO's Sinharaja rainforest home to species found nowhere else on Earth.
Yet wildlife in Sri Lanka is under constant threat from human encroachment. Tourism helps protect these wild habitats because it provides an income to people living on the fringes of national parks.
How you can help
DO support the national parks to provide work for local people
DON’T use a torch, wear light clothing or make noise on turtle beaches – you’ll disrupt nesting.
Best wildlife spotting
Elephants – Uda Walawe National Park. Stay at the Mahoora eco-camp beside the Walawe river. You’ll provide work for naturalists, local guides, cooks and drivers... and the camp is totally sustainable.
Rainforest birds – Sinharaja, the last virgin rainforest in Sri Lanka – protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Home to 98 per cent of the endemic birds in Sri Lanka.
Wading birds – Puttalam wetlands, due north of the capital Colombo.
Leopard – Yala National Park has the highest concentration of leopard in the world along with elephants, crocodiles, sambhur, sloth bears and monkeys.
Turtles – Visit Kosgoda Turtle Hatchery where owner Similius Abrew and his family have dedicated their lives to saving turtles, setting free 2.5 million hatchlings since the early Eighties. Destroyed by the tsunami, they’re rebuilding with donations from visitors.
