The Yala National Park of Sri Lanka is considered the best place to get up close and personal with these rare felines. One of the largest wildlife reserves in the nation (spanning a ground area of over a 100,000 hectares over the island's dry zone in the southeast), this park is home to untold numbers of leopards, most of whom have become habitualized enough to humans and safari jeeps that photographers of any skill level stand a chance of capturing these speedsters in unguarded majesty.
The park falls across two of the island's provinces and is divided into five blocks, only two of which are open to visitors for various safety reasons. It is because of this inaccessibility that the present number of Asian leopards is largely uncounted; a documentary by Gordon Buchanan recorded thirty of the sub-species in the forests, marking Yala as the world's largest leopard population to inhabit one area. Despite Yala East being largely off-limits, Yala West makes up for it by its ever-changing landscape montage that stretches from dense jungles to brackish lagoons abounded by the South-eastern sea.
The leopards are not, however, the only fauna worth seeing in the park.
Elephants come a close second, as do deer, wild boars and sloth bears. Smaller mammalian species include the black-naped hare, a variety of mongooses, porcupines and grey langurs. Avian life is also abundant, recording over 140 species sighted within the grounds, from great birds of prey such as eagles and hawks to a variety of storks and jungle fowls as well as gorgeously-plumed birds such as Paradise Flycatchers, pink flamingos and strutting peacocks.
