Tuesday February 24 2026. Yala National Park!

Group C: Victoria, Vennila, Ciara

Started the day off with an early morning, leaving the Sunflower Hotel at around 5:30am. In three separate jeep-style vehicles we made our way to Yala National Park for a 6:30am safari starting at Katagamuwa gate. Along the extremely bumpy paths, our guides helped to point out many amazing wildlife, giving many of us our first look at many species in the wild (“lifers”). All groups got to see our first peeks at Sri Lankan Leopards Jerry and Lucas, who were asleep up trees by mid-morning. The first few Sri Lankan Elephants, the largest of the Asian Elephants, were spotted relatively early in the morning starting around 8:15am as well. These amazing animals were followed by a Sri Lankan Sloth Bear a rarer sighting, that crossed the road between a few of the vehicles, giving many of us an up-close view of the small bear. Between encounters of the “big three”, as many called the leopards, elephants, and sloth bears, we stopped for three species of brightly coloured bee-eaters (birds) positioned close and far from the vans, Water Buffalo and crocodiles wallowing in the muddy water, and Bengal Monitor lizards trying to catch as many rays as possible in the early morning sun. Peafowl were also a common sighting as we drove along enjoying the scenery, which included a large rock in the middle of the landscape aptly named Elephant Rock for its likeness to the creatures.  Throughout we caught glimpses of the many Spotted deer, Sambar deer, and Tufted Gray Monkeys (one eating from a bush) that also inhabit the park.

Just as the hottest part of the day began to roll around, we pulled into our rest-stop. The park closes between 12pm and 2pm, so this was the perfect time to have some cool drinks and our lunches from the canteen on location. The location was right on the water, and we had some free time to enjoy the view and the beach. There was also a small souvenir shop where we could pick up some of the essential Yala National Park merchandise to take home. Once 2:00pm came, we were back in our safari vehicles, ready for the second half of our day.

On our way out of the rest-stop, one of the guides spotted a large Brown Fish Owl, perched in the shade in a tree. We photographed it as it looked around lazily, seeming to judge our very existence. As one of the vehicles passed another large, but this time, very flat rock, and one of the guides informed the group that this rock was used for drying meat before the park was protected. In the last few hours, we managed another sighting of a sloth bear rubbing up against a tree, and then wandering into the trees, which caused some displeasure among some foreign guests in the jeeps behind us who didn’t get as clear of a sighting. We were able to see a pair of female elephants leading a baby elephant along the road, where one of three safari vehicles from our group experienced another up-close encounter before the elephants slipped into the trees. Our guides then tracked where the elephants were likely to go based on their path, and demonstrating their amazing understanding of the park, were correct. One elephant crossed the wetland through the water, while the other female went around with the baby, as it was too small to walk through the water. One guide gave the group even more detail, one of the females was the baby’s mother, while the other was a caretaker, which allows the mother to get enough food to feed the calf as it’s required 15 L of milk per day. Sri Lankan Elephant calves are born at 150-200 kg, so the amount of milk a baby would require is quite a bit more than your average human baby. After this final elephant sighting, we began our trek out of the park, only for our guides to get the call that one of the female leopards was awake and on the move a little way away. Our drivers got us there as hastily as possible where we luckily ended up at a prime location to watch “Lucas’ wife”, sitting on a bank and then saunter to a bush to lay back down. We sat there for quite a while, simply watching the majestic cat.

One of the trucks got an added bonus of spotting the infamous elephant, Gemunu, who is notorious for trying to steal food out of tourist vehicles. Another truck saw a tree full of Malabar Pied-Hornbills!

Despite our exhaustion, we gathered back at the hotel and ended the day with Group D’s debate on multinational treaties to reduce illegal trade.