Best Elephant Locations In Sri Lanka
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These are the world famouse locations in sri lanka for elephants,Yala, Habarana, Dambulla, Sigiriya, Maduruoya, Wasgomuwa, Lahugala, Galoya, Inginiyagala, Thanamalwila are best to see large number of wild elephants.Domestic Elephants are found at Pinnawala, Ratnapura, Kandy, Kagalle.

Pinnawala Elephant :- See baby jumbos wondering around their cramped foster home or bottle fed and bathed by their human foster fathers at Pinnawala, about 90Km from Colombo towards Kandy is the home to some 60 or more elephant orphans. A place you will really enjoy and never forget. Most orphans are accustomed to their curious human visitors are harmless. Started in 1972 the Elephant Orphanage was relocated to at the present site in 1975 Bathing time at Ma Oya just in front of the orphanage is sharp at 10.00am and 2.00pm. Feeding time is about and hour earlier. See baby jumbos wondering around their cramped foster home or bottle fed and bathed by their human foster fathers at Pinnawala, about 90Km from Colombo towards Kandy is the home to some 60 or more elephant orphans. A place you will really enjoy and never forget. Most orphans are accustomed to their curious human visitors are harmless. Orphanage.

Udawalawa National Park :- Transfer from park entrance to the campsite by 4WD jeeps. You can have a lunch at campsite.In the evening do a safari of The Udawalawe National Park by jeep. This is a dry zone park, which was declared as a national park in 1972. The park falls between Udawalawe reservoir and the Walawe River and is surrounded by the scenic beauty of the mountain ranges that keep on winding endlessly on the Balangoda, Kalthota and Haputale escarpments. This park is world famous for its elephants, seen in all their playfulness, whole herds of them, adults and babies bathing and playing in the water or feeding.

Wilpattu National Park :- is a park located on the island. The unique feature of this park is the existence of “Willus” (Natural lakes) - Natural, sand-rimmed water basins or depressions that fill with rainwater. Located in the Northwest coast lowland dry zone of Sri Lanka. The park is located 30km west Anuradhapura and located 26 km north of Puttalam (approximately 180 km north of Colombo). The park is 131, 693 hectares and ranges from 0 to 152 meters above sea level. Nearly sixty lakes (Willu) and tanks are found spread throughout Wilpattu. Wilpattu is one of the largest and oldest National Parks in Sri Lanka. Wilpattu is among the top national parks world renowned for its Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) population. The Leopard population in Wilpattu is still not yet known.

Wasgamuwa National Park :- is a natural park in Sri Lanka. It was declared to protect and to make a refuge for the displaced wild animals during the Mahaweli Development Project in 1984 and is one of the four National Parks designated under the Project.[1] Originally it was designated as a nature reserve in 1938, and then in the early 1970's the area was regraded as a strict nature reserve.[2] Wasgamuwa is one of protected areas where Sri Lankan Elephants can be seen in large herds. It is also one of the Important Bird Areas in Sri Lanka. The name of the Wasgamuwa has derived through the words "Walas Gamuwa".[3] "Walasa" is Sinhala for Sloth bear and "Gamuwa" means a wood. The park is situated 225 km away from Colombo.

Gal Oya Natinal Park :- in Sri Lanka was established in 1954 and serves as the main catchment area for Senanayake Samudraya. Senanayake Samudraya was built under the Gal Oya development project by damming the Gal Oya at Inginiyagala in 1950. An important feature of the Gal Oya National Park is its elephant herd that can be seen throughout the year. Three important herbs of the Ayurveda medicine, Triphala Terminalia chebula, Terminalia bellirica and Emblica officinalis are amongst the notable flora of the forest.

Bundala National Park :- is an internationally important wintering ground for migratory water birds in Sri Lanka. Bundala harbors 197 species of Birds, the highlight being the Greate Flamingo, which migrate in large flocks.[1] Bundala was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1969 and redesignated to a national park on 4 January 1993.[2] In 1991 Bundala became the first wetland to be declared as a Ramsar site in Sri Lanka. In 2005 the national park was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO, the fourth biosphere reserve in Sri Lanka.[3] The national park is situated 245 km southeast of Colombo.

Map About Elephants And Wild Life In Sri Lanka
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With this map you can get a clear idea about where the elephants are in sri lanka,and also u can plan your tour well according to this map.

Behavior Of Elephants

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Elephants live in all parts of the dry zone in Sri Lanka. Few elephant herds are known to live in wet zone. Usually they stay in the jungle to shelter them from the heat of the sun. In the morning they come out to open to eat grass. The best times to watch elephants are early in the morning and late afternoons when the sun is not strong,bt they come to tanks for water under these conditions.

They use mud,water to cover their body against heat. You can see elephants at tanks, rivers and water holes playing, swimming and drinking water. They love rain and play in the rain when it rains after a dry season. Rain mean water which mean fresh grown grass and leaves for their food.

Elephant rarely live alone. They live in herds like a large family. Sometimes elephant herds consist over 50, 60 elephants or more. The grown male elephants usually live alone. They return to herd during the mating season known as mada kipeema (need to mate) from September to October. Most of the parks are closed for visitors during this period.

Unlike humans the oldest female elephant is the leader of the herd guiding the family to places with plenty of food and water as well as protecting the members of the herd from any danger and make sure that the baby elephants are properly looked after.

A baby elephant though born to one mother, drinks milk from all female elephants and all of them take care and protect the baby elephants.Sometimes the baby elephant, mother and father elephant travel together and considered as dangerous as at times baby elephants follow humans. This is called "Tunpath Rela". (Herd of There elephants).

Elephants need lots of food to keep them healthy and strong. The grown elephants eat between 100 to 200 Kilograms of grass or leaves everyday and need lots of water. Water and Grass supply is a key reason to stay at one place. They can move about 30 km a day looking for new place with grass and water.

Their average height (height is measured to the shoulder) goes to about 8 feet (2.5m) and 1800 Kg in weight. Female elephants give a birth once in 4 years and 2-3 babies in their life span. get 4 sets of teeth and every 10 years a new set of teeth is coming to get the last set when they are about 40 years old. walk about 20 miles per day and young female elephants are reedy for mating when they are 13 years old.

Elephants are very active in the night and most of them sleep under large trees in the day time. Some people believe that they have grave yards and come near to a water resource when they are about to die. Some do not believe it and say when they are old, their teeth are wasted and difficulty of consuming heavy branches of trees made them come to a place where there is grass and water.

Elephant Safaris And Wild Life Camping

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Yala National Park :- Situated in the southeast region of the island in the dry zone boarding the Indian Ocean. Park area is belonging to two provinces namely South and Uva Provinces. The total area of the park (which is of 5 blocks) is 97,881 ha but only Block I and Block II are open for visitors.

The park was initially established in 1938 only with block I and other blocks were included later.Rainfall is highly seasonal. Main source of rainfall is Northeast monsoons (December, February) and inter monsoonal rains during March-April. Mean Annual Rainfall: 900, 1300 mm. Area is experiencing drought during June, October. Mean annual Temperature 27o C. Daily temperature above 30oC is not uncommon.Vegetation is mainly consists of Secondary lowland dry monsoon forest & semi arid thorny scrublands. Small patches of revering forest, mangroves, sand dunes and dry grasslands also presented.

Forest area is dominated by Palu (Manilkara hexandra), Weera (Drypetes sepiaria), Malitthan (Salvadora persica), Ehala (Cassia fistula), Divul (Limonia acidissima) and Kohomba (Azadirachta indica).Thorny scrubland is dominated by Eraminia (Ziziphus.sp) and Andara (Dichrostachys cinerea). Sonneratia, Acanthus, Rhizopora and Lumnitzera species dominate the mangrove vegetation.All the big game mammals of the country are found within the park. Elephant, Leopard, sloth bear, Spotted Dear, Wild Boar and sambhur. Apart from them small mammals such as Black napped hare, Grey, Ruddy & Striped necked mongoose, Grey Languor & porcupine are common small animals.

Wilpattu National Park :- Wilpattu is one of the oldest National Parks in Sri Lanka Located in Northwest coast lowland dry zone of Sri Lanka. The park lies within the North-central & North-western providences. The area of the park is 131693 ha. The unique feature of this park is the existence of Willus (Natural lakes).

As the park lies in dry zone rainfall is highly seasonal. Inter-monsoonal rains in March and the northeast monsoon (December, February) are the main sources of rainfall. Mean annual rainfall is about 1000 mm and the mean annual temperature is about 27, C.

The park consists of willus, dry-lowland forests, scrublands, open grasslands and coastal belt. Characteristic feature of the park is that majority of park area is covered with dense forest.The vegetation dominated by tree species such as Palu (Manilkara hexandra), Weera (Drypetes sepiaria) & Satin (Chloroxylon swietenia). Milla (Vitex altissima), Ebony (Diospyros ebenum) and Wewarana (Alseodaphne semecaprifolia) are also found in fair numbers.

Maduru Oya National Park :- Located in the Dry Zone and is 300 k.m. away from Colombo and 58,849 hectares in extent. A wide variety of wildlife including some endemic birds species and reptiles are found here. Maduru Oya is rich in ancient ruins found in different places and its southern parts provide veddhas, indigenous people their living environment. Endemic purple monkey is among the important animal species that can be seen in addition to Sambhur, a member of the cat family etc. There is some endemic avifauna also found within this Park.

Bundala National Park :- Bundala National Park is situated in the southeast part of the country in the semi arid zone. Park belongs to Southern Province. The park area is 6,216 ha.The park was initially established as a Sanctuary in 1969. Due to its significant role as a wintering site for migratory birds this was declared as RAMSAR wetland in 1990.As Bundala National Park is located in semi arid zone, rainfall is highly seasonal. Main source of rainfall is Northeast monsoons (December, February). Mean Annual Rainfall: 900, 1300 mm. Area is experiencing prolong drought from May to October. Mean annual Temperature 27o C. Daily temperature above 30oC is not uncommon.

Bundala National Park is mainly consist of 4 brackish lagoons, salt pans, marshes, thorny scrub lands, sand dunes, dry mixed ever green forests and dry grass lands. Scrublands mainly consist of Andara (Dichrostachys cinerea), Eraminiya (Ziziphus sp.), Karamba (Carrisa spinarum). However the invasive species such as Prosopis juliflora and Opuntia delenii are spreading in the grasslands and scrublands.Forest is covered by typical dominants of Dry mixed ever green forests Palu (Manilkara hexandra), Weera (Drypetes sepiaria) and Mallithan (Salvadora persica). Maila (Bauhinia racemosa) and diwul (Limonia acidissima) are also frequently seen. Park provides the shelter for Elephant, Spotted Dear, Wild Boar, Black naped hare, Grey & Ruddy mongoose, toque macaque, Grey Langur & porcupine, jackal and fishing & Rusty Spotted cats. This park is also well known for sightings of estuarine crocodile and mugger crocodile.

Plan youre tour around these places

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Dambulla :- is a part of the cultural triangle declared by UNESCO is on the main road from Sigiriya to Kandy about 19km from Sigiriya there are over 80 caves around this ancient city and some of them have been used by the the monks as meditation locations and as temples.Major attraction are spread over 5 caves,which are contain the statues and the paintings.

Udawalawe :- This is the Sri Lankas best park to see elephants.Situated by walawe river and udawalawe reservoier this park is a great place for camping and also great for safari.Established in 1972.

Yala National Park :- yala is the largest national park in Sri Lanka and is the home of the most largest animals of the country including wild elephants,wild boar,wild buffalos and also bear and deer.

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage :- more about pinnawala see baby jumbos wondering around their cramped foster home or bottle fed and beathed bt their human foster fathers at pinnawala, about 90km from colombo towards kandy is the home to some 60 or more elephant orphans.This is a place u will rellay enjoy and never forget.

Wasgamuwa National Park :- Mahiyangana is a an ancient city in sri lanka relating to Lord Buddha. the Lord Buddha visited first to mahiyanganaya in

Sri Lanka.Situated at a great location by mahaweli river. Mahiyangana provide access several national parks,bird watching locations and sanctuaries.