Malaka Rodrigo

1 week ago | news.mongabay.com | Malaka Rodrigo

In a landmark judgment, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court recently ended a 15-year legal battle over plans to upgrade a road through Wilpattu National Park, making conservationists heave a sigh of relief. The court ruling follows an election pledge by Anura Kumara Dissanayake during the presidential race to reopen the road, which drew sharp criticism from environmentalists.

1 week ago | scidev.net | Malaka Rodrigo

[COLOMBO, SciDev.Net] Wildlife experts question the wisdom of adopting “elephant corridors” in Sri Lanka to end the country’s deadly human-elephant conflict, calling instead for a more science-based approach. Nearly 5,000 elephants and 1,600 people have been killed in the last 15 years in clashes between elephants and humans in Sri Lanka, home to one of the largest remaining populations of Asian elephants, according to official figures seen by SciDev.Net.

1 week ago | news.mongabay.com | Malaka Rodrigo

Recent sightings of golden jackals (Canis aureus naria) in Sri Lanka’s capital city underscore the significance of urban wetlands as sanctuaries for wildlife amid rapid urbanization. The jackals in Sri Lanka belong to a distinct subspecies, Canis aureus naria, have recorded a sharp population decline due to multiple reasons ranging from habitat loss to roadkills and diseases transmitted by stray dogs.

3 weeks ago | news.mongabay.com | Malaka Rodrigo

An Asian paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi) with distinctive markings on its head that has returned to the same home garden in Colombo for four consecutive migratory seasons has sparked interest among bird enthusiasts in Sri Lanka. Many birds, especially migratory species, possess a remarkable ability to return to the same location year after year, sometimes to the exact tree or nest, which is a behavior known as site tenacity or site fidelity.

1 month ago | news.mongabay.com | Malaka Rodrigo

A new study reports a notably high density of Sri Lankan leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya) in eastern Sri Lanka’s Kumana National Park, highlighting the park as a significant habitat for the leopards. Using camera traps, the study recorded more than 90 leopard encounters, including 34 identified individual leopards, captured on film across a 16-month survey period.