Kumana National Park a paradise for birding & a Haven for Leopards

Kumana National Park, also known as Yala East National Park is located in the south east corner of the island consisting of over 18,000 hectares. The park which can be accessed only through Panama is a great place for wildlife viewing without the hustle and bustle of most of the other popular parks. The area has a range of accommodation from the Luxurious Jetwing Surf and Kottukal Beach House, which is a lovely  hours’ drive away from the park, while more Arugam Bay offers accommodation ranging from 4 star properties to home stays and beach camps. Getting closer to the park, the accommodation becomes more basic and in the Panama region you get mostly beach camps with minimal facilities.

A National Park is all about its fauna and flora and Kumana is second to none in the country. Most popularly known as a destination for birding, due to the presence of a water body known as the Kumana Villu. It’s a natural lake which is filled by the waters of the Kumbukkan Oya that forms the perfect habitat for a wide range of species of birds. The seasonal water bodies as well as the tidal mud flats also attract some of the winter migrants as well. Habitat wise the park has Costal Mangroves, Riverine Forests, Open Grass Lands, Shrub Jungle, Rocky Granite Out Crops and Dry Zone Evergreen Forest. 

In terms of bird life, the park is an excellent place to Migrant species such as Brahmini Mynas and Rosy Starlings.

Another species of bird that is abundant and will offer you great photographic opportunities is the Malabar Pied Hornbill. They can be seen in numbers especially in the golden light of the evenings, where they come down to the ground to dust bathe before they head back to their night time roosts.

Raptors such as Changeable Hawk Eagles, Serpent Eagles and Brown Fish Owls are also a common sight. 

Yala National Park, especially Block 1 of the park is known for having one of the highest densities of leopards in the world, but this comes with a price! The park at times becomes inundated with safari vehicles and noisy visitors who seem to have no clue as to why they are there. Private sightings of leopards or other animals is unheard of. Pictures usually have a vehicle or two in the back ground.

Just on the other side of the Kumbukan Oya lies another paradise of the islands top predator and that is Kumana National Park. The Leopard density here too is rather high, and the density of safari vehicles is much lower than Yala. With habitats similar to Yala, the Kumana is a heaven for leopards and also the proper wildlife tourist. The lack of vehicles and noisy tourists mean that your Leopard safari experience becomes out of this world. If you are a photographer this mean being able to take amazing images of wildlife without having to move around too much and altering their natural behavior. 

A unique feature in our opinion of the parks leopards is their lack of fear of humans and these are animals that are not habituated to masses of tourists like their Yala cousins. It’s something that can be tied up with the legends of the Lenama Leopards. “The general legend as to the Lenama Leopards is that they were much bigger and bolder and did not necessarily flee at the sight or confrontation with man”. A most interesting feature of these legendary leopards is that they allegedly had a stripe or two along the neck. The Ven Anandasiri relates (Twenty-Five Years in the Jungle) an encounter with a leopard outside his cave in the Kudumbigala Hermitage “The face of a leopard I saw. Yet, he did not look fierce. I saw stripes on either side of his neck. The claws on its paws were quite large” . 

[1] Stefan d’Silva … an original piece responding to ATW Guneratne’s “The Call of the Remote Wild: Kumana in SE Lanka”

The lack of disturbance mean that even cubs come out and play in plain sight giving excellent viewing and photography opportunities. Below is a set of cubs who played on the side of the dirt track for about 2 hours in plain sight.

You know an animal is bold and fearless if you can take portrait images of them! This is also a possibility in Kumana and without the main vehicles jostling for a position to see them they have that clam and wild look in their eyes. Like on the image on the right. 

The picture of a leopard seen on a road is a special sight, when you think your safari is over and headed back to your accommodation, Kumana throws you a surprise by showing you more wildlife on the drive out. This doesn’t happen with many of the other National Parks. The essential shot of a leopard on a tree, possible at the park! On top of a rock with a stunning sunset in the back ground again Kumana is the place.

We can leave it to you to decide if Kumana is a Birds Paradise or a Haven for Leopards? We believe it’s both!