Leopards of Wilpattu

27th March 2022 at 3.16pm one leopard at Philli Motte pond. N 08.37269, E 079.89659

2.45pm I arrived at Pill Motte and decided to wait at the water hole as I was yet to see a leopard drinking from this pond. As usual it was calm, and I enjoyed being by myself listening to all the jungle sounds. Since I started my study in 2012, I have observed that this water hole dries up completely by end May and fills up again with the heavy rains in end October. During these dry months animals in this area have no other water hole nearby to drink. Many visitors to the park seldom visit this area of the park unless they enter from the Eluwankulama entrance. In September 2016 a half-cut plastic can was placed by the safari jeep drivers from Eluwankulama and many animals including a leopard had been seen drinking from the same. Thus, I sought permission from the park warden Mr. Manoj Waidyaratne to build a concrete pond at my cost at this location and he accepted and supported my request. Mr. Seram who was the officer in charge of the DWC office Eluwankulama and his team volunteered to overlook the construction work according to my dimensions and specifications. I had already pre planned to locate the pond at the edge of the water body and under the shade of a Thimbiri tree so that animals including birds will feel safe in being able to make a quick getaway. It was completed on the 24th of September 2016. Since then, I have spent many hours here and observed with great happiness hundreds of birds of different species and mammals such as Spotted Deer, Wild Boar, Sambhur, Grey Langur and Ruddy Mongoose ect drinking from this pond during the dry season. All except the elusive leopard. Since building this pond in 2016, I was so eager to witness and photograph a leopard drinking here. During many of my visits during the dry months I would always visit this pond expecting to observe a leopard. On so many occasions I would park and wait patiently for long periods of time without any luck.

3.06pm 2 Barking Deer arrived and after looking around for some time gathered enough courage to drink.

All at once the two Barking Deer ran away from the vicinity of the pond and started making loud alarm calls. Excitement was building within me with the expectation of seeing a leopard. I had my binoculars glued to my eyes observing the area beyond the pond. The Barking Deer continued to make alarm calls. After few minutes of silence, I observed some movement through the trees. It was indeed a leopard. My dream of capturing a leopard at this pond was just one click away. I quickly positioned my camera. The leopard was cautious and stopped without breaking cover. I could see its movements through the camera and muttered to myself “come on come on”. After what seemed like forever a beautiful female leopard cautiously walked down to the pond and started to drink. It was just as I had imagined. I kept on taking images of her every move. It was a young female of around 2 years. This is my first sighting of a leopard drinking at this pond. While photographing I knew that these would be images that I would cherish and would help me remember and relive this experience for a long time. Having quenched her thirst, she walked across to the road and disappeared into the forest. Later upon examining her spot pattern I noted that it is not a leopard that is in my data base. I named her Phill Motte Female 1 (PMF 1).