Animal Life in Wilpattu National Park
If elephants are the pride of Yala, then leopards weave a magical spell in Wilpattu. If in Yala they were furtive or distant, here their composure borders on suavity and visitors have not felt the pulse of this big park who were not lucky enough to see at least one leopard. For they walk long distances in front of your vehicle, relax contentedly at the edge of a villu or sprawl limply across a branch as though they confided in you.
At an average, there are two or three leopards to each area circumscribing a villu or water hole, which puts the figure around 60 for the park proper. Unfortunately a lot of them still do not put in an appearance during daylight hours. But the situation improves each year as they get accustomed to vehicular traffic.
Leopards go courting in little groups. Several males are attracted by the one female who has a time of it choosing her partner. After mating, the pair keep together until the cubs are grown. The gestation period is roughly 90 days. Two or three cubs are born but at least one of these is a runt.
Bears are Wilpattu’s second best attraction. Although the dry season affords better chances of seeing them as they shuffle along in search of water. Bears are also active during wet weather particularly in the morning after a heavy downpour. Then they rummage among termite hills breaking up the softened clay and sucking up the frenzied insects with a loud slurp. They are not handsome animals nor do they have a tolerant attitude towards us. If met with while on foot, they seldom act with restraint, rearing up on hind feet, yelping and charging like demons. Unless you are armed the encounter is brief and singularly one sided. But in the wild parks, they are different animals altogether. There is no animus, only a long anxious stare through cheerless eyes.
There are favoured spots for bears. Some months ago an enormous she bear with two little cubs at heel used to patrol the Nelun Kumbuk Kokkari triangle. At the slightest disturbance the two cubs virtually leapt on to the mother’s back and sat one behind the other. Then one day she came out with only one cub which eventually stayed with her until full grown. This couple became tremendous favourites in the park for they used to even stroll up to vehicles as though they wished to shake hands with the driver.
Like leopards, bears too are not given to community living except when their hormones permit it at the breeding season. Then also it is a noisy gathering for males quarrel with each other over matters of procedure and eligibility. Once at Kokkari, a car got mixed up in such a contest and the defeated candidate galloped up to it, leapt on to the bonnet over the other side and into the bushes. The road to Kokmottai traverses good bear country. Unfortunately, they are a little shy because the appearance of vehicles in this part of the park is a recent phenomenon, but as more visitors use it, all that will change.
Regretfully, the wild buffalo population is not as attractive as it should be because domestic hordes stray in from the surrounding villages. However scrimpy the village cows may be the wild bulls are attracted to them and promiscuous associations follow. Very hardly a single wild herd is not so adulterated, which is rather a pity.
All other herbivorous animals are amply represented for Wilpattu can provide sufficient food and water. Practically all the villus have a substantial collection of deer and sambhur. At certain times of the year, you might find them in short supply that is when the berries are in season and the deer keep to the forested areas.
The occurrence of white deer in Wilpattu is something of a tradition. Some wildlife researchers recorded a species of white deer in an area 6 miles north of Puttalam and said – there of that kind were caught, the last one in 1822. But all efforts to keep them alive have proved abortive. From 1950 onwards, four such animals have graced Wilpattu and even at the time of writing an adult white doe with a fawn at heel adorns the herd at Kudapatessa. The fawn however is normal.
The barking deer, muntjac or rib faced deer, commonly called the red deer comes into its own in this part of the country. As they do not graze they have practically no occasion to be seen outside their forest and scrub habitat except when driven out of it in search of water. For a barking deer to be seen at one of the more open villus is an indication that all available water inside the jungle has run out. This deer is a pathetically timid creature and to watch it come to drink is a nerve wracking experience even to the observer. Its body appears to quiver with fear as though every falling leaf or swaying branch is going to consume it. It is indeed a wonder that when real danger threatens it does not drop dead, but barks like a dog and plunges headlong into the thicket. Barking deer lead solitary lives.
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