WILD SRI LANKA

In the grasses of Sri Lanka’s scrub forests, a leopard stalks his prey. Here, food is plentiful, as populations of deer feed on the grass sustained by thousands of man-made lakes. These pools of blue are the centre of life on the flat plains of Sri Lanka. Sloth bears and painted storks, jackals, monkeys and some of the greatest concentrations of both mugger crocodiles and elephants to be found anywhere on earth swarm to their cool embrace…

The forests of Sri Lanka rise above the rest of the country like islands out of the sea. Here, species found nowhere else in the world have been marooned on high forest plateaus, isolated from the rest of Sri Lanka, as they are unable to cross from one patch of forest to another. This mountainous terrain is exposed to not just one, but two monsoons each year, creating a distinct microclimate among these cloud-cloaked trees. Blue magpies, red-slender loris and purple-faced monkeys inhabit this strange, colourful – and ever-diminishing – world.

As the sun rises over the blue waters off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, the largest mammal on earth breaks the surface. Beneath these waves lives a unique population of pygmy blue whales, which feed, mate and play close to the shore in greater numbers than any other blue whale population on the planet. From tangled mangrove forests to pristine white-sand beaches, Sri Lanka’s coastal waters present a show of nature’s most magnificent marine mammals. And out at sea, thriving coral reefs hide ancient wrecks filled with fish, while hundreds of dolphins race among the waves. This is an oceanic island where water, above all things, rules.