Long famed for its elephants and other wild animals, Sri Lanka is also home to the magnificent leopard. Although hard to spot, due to their secretive nature and the fact that their numbers are worryingly low. Dilini Ratnayake Gunasekera of Explore Srilanka found out that with a little patience and some local knowledge, it is possible to come face to face with these most gracious of predators.

A visitor to Yala is no longer just looking for elephants as it is now known for its relatively high den­sity of leopards. Many of the national parks in Sri Lanka have substantial wild elephant populations but Yala is the well known destination to observe leopards.The guides may tell you that a leopard may cross the road or you may find one lying on a branch of a well grown mara or a palu tree. The visitors have to turn their heads up as well making it different from an elephant sa­fari as they are good climbers and most of their time is spent lazing in trees.

"Leopard watching is different from being on an elephant safari. You have to stay at a distance and gain the trust of the animal.

It may move out of sight if you make any noise and some people are una­ware of this. Elephants may come charg­ing towards you but not the leopards. If you get too close though it may spoil the experience for everyone else. The visitors must remain still in the jeeps as the leop­ard doesn't enjoy human movement and tends to move away from it."

Leopards can be seen at anytime of the day but heavy rain must be avoided since they won't come to the water pools or road sides providing less chance of seeing them. More visits to the park may bring more chances of seeing leopards and as such it is advisable for the visitors to plan a two night trip to Yala.

The visitors must be self disciplined and committed if they really want to see the animals. Most of the safaris are to Block One out of five blocks in Yala National Park and the guides have a good understanding of where they usually roam. Padi-kema. Suduwellimulla, Medapara, Thalgasmankada and Andunoruwa are some of the spots identified in Block One but you never know whether your jeep is passing a leop­ard without your knowledge as they are so camouflaged in the jungle background.

The frequent visitors, especially the guides are able to recognize some indi­viduals with their unique dark spots and rosettes. It is truly a sight to behold to see such a marvelous creature. They look so clean, smart and yet vicious at the same time.

Meeting a couple is rare since the leopard is a territorial animal. The male leopard marks a larger territory than the female leopard, spraying urine and streak­ing trees to fence its territory, restricting other leopards from entering. It stays as a solitary animal being strong enough to sur­vive alone but tries to stay away from wild bores which it sees as a threat.

The visitors to Yala must always under­stand that we have no right to intrude into their habitat and should not behave in any way that makes them loose their tolerance towards humans coming into their terri­tory.