Leopards of Wilpattu

13th August 2022 at 8.20am a Leopard on the road between Maha Wewa and Maradanmaduwa. N 08.40575, E 080.10502

We spotted the leopard at a distance but did not want to move too close as animals in this area of the park are not as tolerant of safari vehicles as the animals in the main villu areas. It was an adult male and was walking away from us. He marked the bushes exhibiting typical leopard behaviour. After some-time he looked in our direction and walked into the forest. We waited for about 10 minutes expecting the leopard to move back on to the road but an alarm call of a Sambhur from some distance within the forest indicated that our leopard had moved deep into the forest. Having checked its spot pattern I noted that this is not a leopard that I have in my data base of leopards. I named it Maha Wewa Male 1 For the purpose of my study with the code (MHWM 1). (With guide Tissa Ratnayake)