Fight for life

The dry season in Yala reached a peak in the last few months with many animals dying due to  the lack of water and food. The sight of weary buffaloes dying at the edge of the remaining water puddles was an agonizing sight as life slowly ebbed away from their drought stricken bodies. They remained fallen for a long while and just as we concluded it had died, a desperate attempt to raise its head reflected the fight for life. The fallen bounty was being watched by the scavengers now well fed and plump. We watched from one bund of Palugaswala 1, whilst a leopard sprawled on the other bund closer to the Uraniya plains kept us company, watching the fight for life. The open jaws of crocodiles with rows of jagged teeth at the waters edge, the sniff of a herd of wild boar with squealing youngsters and the alarm call of deer and monkey surely heralded an agonizing death. One wondered which was better, a slow death of thirst and heat, a swift death of being suffocated by the jaws of a leopard or a painful death of being drowned and ripped apart by the jaws of a crocodile.My quiet reflection was shattered as the excitement of the eyes aboard 15 green vehicles indicated that the leopard had sat up and was alert. I dived behind my viewfinder and quickly adjusted the camera settings to suit the light conditions and focused  the camera upon the dying buffalo. I looked around to see shaking hands gripping cameras as keen onlookers just like me were peering through their view finders, some with large imposing contraptions of white, some with black and some even pointing a mobile phone with a few mega pixels. My guide whispers in my ear. “Sir kotiya avith harakawa kaevoth nung maru seen ekak, honda pinthura tikak ganna puluwan, miss caranna epa”. As if reading the thoughts of the scavengers on the bund the buffalo kicked its heels in the air in a feeble attempt to sit up and fight for its life.

This was a couple of weeks ago when Sari, Ashani, Uditha and I did a trip to Yala to catch up on the Leopard action before the dry season ended in October. The last few months were truly a “feast for Leopard watchers” as so many were concentrated in a small area around the few remaining waterholes that had water.

We drove down on a Wednesday night and arrived early at the army checkpoint at Palatupana eager to be the first visitors into the park. Silver streaks in the distant sky heralded the dawn of a new day. The road, barely visible as yet, snaked through the scrub jungle still only silhouettes of black. The jungle chorus kept us company as we turned off the main road and headed towards Gonagala to see if we would be lucky to meet a spotted friend lazing on a rock. Sari decided to drive towards the leopard hotspots of Welmalkema, Kohombasgaswala, Rathmalwala and the Palugaswala route. We drove slowly, looking at every rock outcrop that would give a leopard a seat. As we reached the Heenwewa Gonagala junction our guide suggested that we check the rock on the Heenwewa road which we know is a favorite place for leopards. As we drove closer to the gap in the jungle that allows you to see the rock, three voices whispered “anna innawa”. I did not stop the vehicle but drove past a fair distance from the rock, turned the vehicle around, got our camera equipment ready and slowly made our way back to the rock. For the first few minutes we did nothing. The leopard a large male looked at us and we looked at it quite casually with no movement or attempt to take any photographs. The light was too low anyway so we concentrated on getting the leopard relaxed so that it could enjoy our company and we could enjoy its company for a longer time. A few minutes of intense gazing and then it yawned, lay down and sprawled on the rock where only the tips of the ears were visible. I was confident that we had this leopard to ourselves and sent Sari an SMS to join us. The next half an hour was spent as we watched the leopard sleeping, stretching, yawning and sitting, often looking way from us, listening to the sounds of the jungle. After about half an hour we heard the sawing of another leopard and the alertness of our friend on the rock indicated that the animal would soon move. I was worried sick thinking that it would climb down from the far side of the rock giving us no chance of a photograph. The warm morning light was just coming through. As if it read my mind the leopard got up, stretched itself and to my great delight walked down the rock towards our vehicles and appeared on the road about 15 yards behind us. Needless to say that a volley of camera shutter releases accompanied the leopard on its brief walk down to the road. As it was very relaxed we drove away from the leopard in the opposite direction, turned around and accompanied it for a 10 minute morning walk down the Heenwewa road.   Over the next few days we did have many leopard sightings. Rathmalwala was the headquarters as the mother and two cubs decided to provide a show to all visitors both in the morning and evening. The routine was simple. Drive to Rathmalwala, see the leopards there, drive off and see if we could find something more interesting, come back to Rathmalwala and see if the family was doing anything interesting rather than just lounging on the tank bund. There was no photograph so it was boring. Imagine being bored by three leopards seated on a bund. Yala really spoilt us in the last few months.