Bird and Wildlife Team | The best birding and wildlife watching tours in Sri Lanka and tours in India

Our team comprises four professional tour leaders, and several other qualified tour leaders and experts, who have years of experience in observing and studying the birdlife and other wildlife of Sri Lanka.

Land Mammals

It is possible to watch many of the mammals listed below on our usual bird or wildlife watching tours. However if a wildlife enthusiast is interested in finding most or all mammals in this list, which includes some difficult species (due to being rare and/or elusive) and nocturnal species, it is best to take a special mammal watching tour.

Such a tour can be tailored by replacing and/or adding special sites in the given itineraries according to the visitors ’ requirements. Our team members have acquired special knowledge of such sites to find the difficult and nocturnal species, and thus enable visitors to have a better chance of finding these interesting species. It is also quite possible to combine birdwatching and/or butterfly watching in specialised mammal watching tours.

There are a total of 86 species of land mammals recorded to date in Sri Lanka, including 16 species endemic to the Island.

When to watch mammals in Sri Lanka: It is Generally possible to watch most species which wander in open habitat throughout the year. However to find certain uncommon and elusive species it is best to look for them during particular seasons when they more frequently emerge into open habitats than other times. Thus the selection of months for tours depends on visitors’ requirements.

Finding nocturnal mammals: There are several nocturnal species of mammals which are very interesting to visiting mammal watchers (e.g. two species of Loris, Flying-squirrels, bats, etc.). There are special sites known to our team members to find nocturnal species on tours following each of the general itineraries. They are also knowledgeable and skilful in, and fully equipped for, night mammal watching.The table below shows the number of possible sites for each species and the number of chances available to try for them on each itinerary.


Sambar	Purple-faced Leaf Monkey	Sloth Bear	Leopard
© Uditha Hettige	© Uditha Hettige	© Uditha Hettige	© Uditha Hettige

The list below follows classification, taxonomy and nomenclature of species in this list follow Mammals of the World:

a Checklist (2004) A. Duff & A. Lawson. The sequence of taxa is based on The Mammals of the Indomalayan Region (1992) by G.B. Corbet and J. E. Hill. References to recent revision in a few taxa are given after the table.

Note: If the number of ‘chances' for a species is more than the number of ‘sites' this indicates that the possibility of finding that species is significantly high and thus it can be expected to be seen on most of our tours. Such species usually seen on most tours are also indicated with: #

E - Endemic to Sri Lanka

Species	Number of possible sites and chances in each itinerary
	Itinerary 1		Itinerary 2		Itinerary 3		Itinerary 4
	Sites	Chances	Sites	Chances	Sites	Chances	Sites	Chances
Indian Hare Lepus nigricollis	10	12	11	13	11	13	5	6

Sri Lanka Giant Squirrel Ratufa macroura	10	12	10	12	11	13	6	8
India Palm squirrel Funambulus palmarum	15	20	15	20	15	20	10	12
Sri Lanka Jungle Squirrel Funambulus layardi ¹ E	3	4	3	4	3	4	3	4
Dusky-Stripped jungle Squirrel Funambulus sublineatus	5	7	5	7	5	7	5	7
Indian Giant Flying Squirrel Ptaurista philippensis	5	5	5	5	5	5	1	1

Eastern House Mouse Mus musculus	10	10	10	10	10	10	8	8
House Rat Rattus rattus	10	10	10	10	10	10	8	8
Indian Gerbil Tatera indica	4	5	4	5	4	5

Indian Crested Porcupine Hystrix indica	2	2	2	2	2	2

Small Indian Civet Viverricula indica	4	5	5	6	4	5	1	1
Asian Palm Civet Paradoxurus hermaphroditus	8	8	8	8	8	8	5	6
Golden Palm-Civet Paradoxurus zeylonensis E	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2

Jungle Cat Felis chaus	3	3	4	4	3	3	1	1
Rusty-spotted Cat Felis rubiginosa	1	1	1	1	1	1
Fishing Cat Felis viverrina	5	5	5	5	5	5	2	2
Leopard Panthera pardus	4	4	4	4	5	5	1	1

Indian Grey Mongoose Herpestes edwardsii	4	5	4	5	4	5	1	2
Ruddy Mongoose Herpestes smithii	8	10	8	10	9	12	5	6
Indian Brown Mongoose Herpestes fuscus	4	5	4	5	4	5	2	3
Striped-Necked Mongoose Herpestes vitticollis	3	4	3	4	3	4	1	1

Golden Jackal Canis aureus	6	7	6	7	7	8	1	2

Sloth Bear Melursus ursinus	1	1	1	1	2	2

Eurasian Otter Lutra lutra	3	3	2	2	3	3	3	3

Asian House Shrew Suncus murinus	5	5	5	5	6	7	3	3
Horsfield's Shrew Crocidura horsfieldi	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2

Indian Flying Fox Pteropus giganteus	14	20	12	18	16	24	8	12
Greater Short-nosed Fruit Bat Cynopterus sphinx	4	4	4	4	4	4	2	2

Woolly Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus luctus	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1
Rufous Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus rouxii	4	6	4	6	4	6	2	2
Dusky Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros ater	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Indian Roundleaf Bat Hipposideros lankadiva	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1
Round-eared Tube-nosed Bat Murina cyclotis	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1
Painted Bat Kerivoula picta	5	6	6	7	5	6	2	3
Hardwicke's Woolly Bat Kerivoula hardwickii	3	3	3	3	3	3	1	1

Red Slender Loris Loris tardigradus E	2	3	2	3	2	3	2	3
Grey Slender Loris Loris lydekkerianus	2	2	1	1	2	2

Toque Macaque Macaca sinica E	10	14	10	14	12	16	7	10
Tufted Grey Langur Semnopithecus priam	8	10	7	9	10	12	2	4
Purple-Faced Leaf Monkey Trachypithecus vetulusE	7	9	7	9	7	9	6	8

Eurasian Wild Boar Sus scrofa	8	10	8	10	9	12	2	3

Sri Lanka White-spotted Chevrotain Moschiola meminna ²E	10	10	11	11	11	12	4	4
Sri Lanka Yellow-spotted Chevrotain Moschiola kathygre ²E	10	10	11	11	11	12	4	4

Sambur Cervus unicolor	5	7	5	7	5	7	3	5
Chital Axis axis	8	15	8	15	9	17	1	2
Indian Muntjac Muntiacus muntjak	5	5	6	6	6	7	2	2

Domestic Water Buffalo Bubalus bubalis	3	5	4	6	4	6	1	1

Asian Elephant Elephas maximus	6	9	6	9	7	10	2	4

	Srinivasulu C, Chakraborty S, and Pradhan M S. 2004. Checklist of Sciurids (Mammalia: Rodentia: Sciuridae) of South Asia. Zoo's Print Journal 19: 1351-1360.
	Groves C P and Meijaard E. 2005. Interspecific variation in Moschiola, the Indian Chevrotain. The Raffles Bul. of Zoology. Supliment 12: 413-421.