Trip reports

Field reports from Sri Lanka, written by the people who made the trips. Each one is reproduced with permission, with its species lists and photographs, and the animals it records link to their pages in this guide.

Trip report · Royle Safaris · 2025Sri Lanka in April 2025: fishing cat, leopard and sloth bear on a family tripIn the Easter half-term holidays of 2025, Royle Safaris director Martin Royle took his family to Sri Lanka and mixed culture, dolphin watching and wildlife. They visited Wilpattu, Trincomalee, Sigiriya and Gal Oya, and recorded 35 mammals, 101 birds, 11 reptiles, 4 amphibians and 17 fish, including Fishing Cat, Leopard, Sloth Bear, Asian Elephant, Jungle Cat, Grey Slender Loris, White-spotted Mouse-deer and Layard's Palm Squirrel. The report has a species list with where each was seen, and photographs of most of them. Trip report · Royle Safaris · 2011Sri Lanka in March 2011: blue whale, leopard and elephant from Wilpattu to MirissaIn March 2011 Royle Safaris director Martin Royle led a Sri Lanka Exploration tour from Wilpattu through Sinharaja, Yala and Uda Walawe to Mirissa. The group saw two Leopards, Asiatic Elephants including a big tusker, Blue Whales and Sperm Whales at sea, Purple-faced Langur and Layard's Striped Squirrel, and recorded 21 mammals, 99 birds, 14 reptiles, 4 amphibians and 21 fish. The report gives the highlights, day-by-day notable sightings and the full species lists. Trip report · Jon Hall · 2010Sigiriya in 72 hours: a mammal-watching trip report, Sri Lanka 2010In December 2010 Jon Hall spent 72 hours around Sigiriya with the Bird and Wildlife Team, spotlighting after dark and searching an arboretum by day, and recorded 31 mammal species. The highlights were Grey Slender Loris, Golden Palm Civet, Rusty-spotted Cat and Eurasian Otter, alongside roosting bats, giant squirrels, mongooses and civets. The report covers each group in turn and ends with a full trip list.

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