VICTORIA-RANDENIGALA-RANTAMBE SANCTUARY

2024 UPDATE

Through the process of releasing a radio-collared leopard in the Victoria-Rangenigala-Rantambe Sacntuary (VRR) in 2023, we realized that this was the 4th leopard released within VRR in the past 3-4 years.

There was little information about the existing leopard population here.

Together with the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), we initiated a remote camera survey, starting within the Randenigala portion of VRR.

The cameras were set up in October 2024 at 6 locations in proximity to previous leopard release locations and near the Department of Wildlife Conservation’s Randenigala Wildlife Health Management Unit (RWHMU). This is where injured/rehabilitating leopards (and other wildlife) are kept until they are in fit condition to release, and so a logical place to begin the surveys.

A total of 335 remote camera 24-hr periods were monitored in 2024.

11 leopard detections of 5 individuals (5 adult males) for an RAI = 3.28

Despite the fact that male leopards are often photo-captured more frequently during surveys due to their wide ranging, it is expected to detect more total females than males, so it was surprising to not detect any females during this 3-month survey.

Other wildlife -

Unexpectedly, no other wild cats were photo-captured during 2024, nor were sloth bears, jackals (Canis aureus) or black-naped hare.However, other “typical” denizens of Sri Lanka’s dry zone forests were detected including elephants (Elephas maximus), sambar, axis deer (Axis axis), barking deer, mouse deer (Moschiola meminna), wild boar, grey langur, toque macaque, Indian small civet (ring-tailed), palm civet (Paradoxursus hermaphroditus), golden palm civet, porcupine, land monitors (Varanus salvator), ruddy mongoose (Herpestes smithii), brown mongoose (Herpestes fuscus), palm squirrel (Funambulus palmarum), rattus sp., peafowl (Pavo cristatus) and jungle fowl (Gallus lafayetti).