ORNITHVACATIONS

Birding & Wildlife Holidays

Mammals of Sri Lanka

Mammals of Sri Lanka come to a total of 128 along with 22+ endemic species. Endemics include Sri Lanka Red Slender Loris (Loris tardigradus), Purple- faced Langur (Semnopithecus vetulus), Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica), Golden Palm Civet (Paradoxurus aureus), Golden Striped- backed Palm Civet (Paradoxurus stenocephalus), Sri Lanka Brown Palm Civet (Paradoxurus montanus) and Sri Lanka Flame- striped Jungle Squirrel (Funumbulus layardi).

Sri Lanka is one of best places in the world to see the largest land mammal in Asia, the Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus maximus), which the subspecies is endemic to Sri Lanka. Although there is a small population of Asian Elephants confined to the wet zone forests, the majority of them can be seen in the dry zone national parks. This endangered mammal is a keystone and a flagship species in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is also an endemic subspecies which is regularly seen during our mammal watching tours. Sri Lanka is also considered as one of the best places to see and photograph leopards, where Yala National Park is considered as one of the best places in the world to observe the leopard during day time. Leopard is the apex predator of the wilderness in Sri Lanka among the other members of the cat family; Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus), Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) and Rusty- spotted Cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus).

Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) is a sub continental endemic termite hunting specialist, which can be seen in National Parks, specially Yala and Wilpattu.

Bat diversity of Sri Lanka with a total of 31 species is a high contribution to the island’s mammal fauna.

There are 6 endemic shrew species out of all the 10 species of shrews recorded, namely Sri Lanka Long Tailed Shrew (Crocidura miya), (Crocidura hikmiya), Sri Lanka Pearson’s Long Clawed Shrew (Solisorex pearsoni), Sri Lanka Pygmy Shrew (Suncus fellowesgordoni), Sri Lanka Highland Shrew (Suncus montanus) and Sri Lanka Jungle Shrew (Suncus zeylanicus).

Sri Lanka has 16 species of rats & mice including 5 endemic species; Sri Lanka Spiny Mouse (Mus fernandoni), Sri Lanka Spiny Rat (Mus mayori), Nelu Rat (Rattus montanus), Sri Lanka Bicoloured Rat (Srilankamys ohiensis) and Sri Lanka Long Tailed Tree Mouse (Vandeleuria nolthenii).

Other endemic mammals that are not mentioned above are White- spotted Chevrotain (Moschiola meminna) and Yellow- striped Chevrotain (Moschiola kathygre).

Spotted Deer (Axis axis), Sambur (Rus unicolor), Barking Deer (Muntiacus muntjak), Pangolin (Manis crassicandata), Jackal (Canis aureus), Mongooses (Herpestes spp), Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphoditus) and the Ring Tailed Civet (Viverricula indica) are also in the noteworthy list.

The Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka has given the home to 32 species of marine mammals. These marine mammals include whales, dolphins and dugong. The largest animal ever to live on earth- the Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is regularly encountered in Sri Lankan waters while Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus), the lagest carnivore in the world is also quite common.

The Dugong (Dugong dugong), which was thought to be extinct, now seems to be still inhabiting in Gulf of Mannar region, as evidenced by stranding specimens.

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