Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park is the place to see leopards in Asia, but can it cope with hordes of tourists?
The park claims the highest leopard density in the world, but with large groups of jeeps fighting for the best views and visitors littering and feeding animals, there are fears the big cats’ environment is under threat
The purr of engines can be heard as safari jeeps prowl around the jungle; their exhaust fumes dancing on the dawn mist at Sri Lanka’s Yala National Park. It’s like the warm-up lap at a Formula 1 race. Soon after 6.30am, the safari guide’s mobile phone rings. “Let’s go and see some chaos,” he says.
And we’re off. Our safari jeep does a U-turn, splashing through a puddle as we leave behind a crocodile making light work of a dead water buffalo. We’re here to see another predator.
We approach two more vehicles, then another. Before long we’re in a throng of 25 jostling jeeps at a small water hole beside a grove of trees. We’re queuing for a cat.
Suddenly a jeep shifts out of the line and launches up the side of a rocky outcrop. Another follows it, before jeeps coming the other way stop their progress. A jungle jam develops as the drivers work hard to put their passengers in the best position, and to hell with everyone else. A good tip may be at stake. The passengers – mostly Western and Chinese tourists – look bemused, until the guides point ahead.“It’s there, in that tree! Can you see?” one yells.
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The leopard cub is dozing on a high branch, but it soon becomes active. It scratches, stretches and leaps about the tree, pausing only to wash its paws. Far below it, tourists stare at it from their jeeps, through binoculars and on zoomed-in smartphone screens.