Climate The climate is ’eastern dry zone’ with semi-arid climate due to the scarcity of rain. The rainy season is the northeast monsoon from October to December/January. Mean annual rainfall is about 1300mm, and the annual mean temperature is 27 degrees. After the rainy season the area is lush and green till about the month of May. More about climate in eastern Sri Lanka Next 5 days weather forecast (BBC) Yala National Park The lodge share flora and fauna with the 1300 km2 Yala National Park, the protected area which covers the south eastern ’corner’ of Sri Lanka. The Yala park was originally a reserve for hunters. It was declared a Protected Area in 1900, a Sanctuary in 1909, and a National Park in 1938. The Park is an agglomeration of protected areas and consists of a variety of different ecosystems, essential for the diverse wildlife that inhabits this jungle. This vast area of wild nature stretch from Tree Tops Jungle Lodge to the south coast, 80 km away, and to the east coast, 60 km away. Landscape The landscape from the lodge to the border of Yala is a variety of abandoned chena fields (’slash and burn’), irrigation tanks and forests. Like in the park, the forest around Tree Tops consist of centuries old secondary forests, thorny scrub jungle and dense tall dry zone forest with many flowering trees and rare tropical woods as the protected ebony tree. The jungle around us has many plants of great medicinal value, for example neeramulliya (Hygrophilla spinosa), polpala (Aerva lantana), nilaveriya (Indigofera tinctoria), vishnukranthi (Evolvulus alsinoides) and many more; all used by natives who know the art of traditional ayurvedic plant medicine. ---------------------------------------------------- Birds Sri Lanka as a whole is a paradise for ornithologists with 427 recorded species of birds. 250 are resident, 23 endemic and further 17 species are ’almost’ endemic as they are shared only with neighhouring India. According to a survey (in Buttala/Maligawila) published by the ’Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka’ (FOGSL) there are 161 species of birds in our area. A Dutch birder, Mr. Harm Kossen, counted 65 species during a two night stay in the first week of September 2002. Among common birds seen or heard daily are Peacock, Grey Hornbill (endemic), Malabar Pied Hornbill (endemic Sri Lanka/India), Sri Lankan Junglefowl (endemic), Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot (endemic), Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Green Bee-eater, Baya Weawer, - and many more. One bird is NOT around Tree Tops; namely the craw! A fact that indicates the remoteness of the lodge, as the craw is always part and parcel of the birdlife near human settlement. View complete birdlist Further info on birdlife in Sri Lanka: www.bsc-eoc.org List of trip reports to Sri Lanka, and much more... http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/asiasrilanka.htm Birder’s hotspots - Sri Lanka. Animals and poaching The wildlife includes Elephant, Sambur, Chital Deer, Marsh Crocodile, Armadillo, Giant squirrel, Wild Boar, and many more. Sloth Bear and Leopard live in the hills nearby. In spite of the many species of wildlife represented, observing game is difficult because the numbers are kept down by poor villagers hunting as a mean of survival. Many animals and birds are killed, species doesn’t matter when shots are fired. Villagers eat virtually any animal or bird, or sell it on the black market as ’wild meat’. All this killing isn’t even a good business; an endemic, rare, and protected bird as Sri Lankan Junglefowl (a kind of pheasant) is sold to restaurants for a quarter dollar. Rediculous. A Peacock is sold for the same price. Elephants 4 km from Tree Tops is the Weliara lake. It’s near the border of Yala block 4 (a ’strict natural reserve’). Especially during dry periods (June-September) herds of elephants are attracted to Lake. Yala National Park and bordering forests host more than 500 elephants, making this area of Sri Lanka a most important elephant habitat with a density about one elephant per 2.5 km2. From the end of April the area receivies rare and short rainfalls and the landscape gradually transforms, getting dry and dusty. The drought culminates in August-September. Days are baking hot, all grass is yellow and dead and elephants have a hard time, very busy finding enough food. This is also the main season of elephant activity around Tree Tops, there is hardly a week without sightings from the lodge. Some elephants are seen every day for a period; late afternoon, in the night, or early morning when the sun rise. Many elephants are attracted to the waterholes nearby and they apparently feel quite safe near Tree Tops. We had great elephant experiences in the dry season 2003: on all full moon nights in June, July, August, and September we saw herds at night from the lodge, sometimes feeding silently from the dry shrub very close to us. Elephant conservation and communication research http://elephant.elehost.com/index.html Elephant information repository. http://elephant.elehost.com/About_Elephants/Senses/Hearing/hearing.html Communication/hearing of elephants. http://goafrica.about.com/library/weekly/uc010815.htm Elephants hear through their feets! http://birds.cornell.edu/BRP/ResElephant.html Elephant communication.research at Cornell Uni.

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