For almost 100 years, this wildlife-rich corner of the Sri Lankan isle has been famed for its diversity of animals and plants. Today, it enjoys a place as the most-visited of all the country’s protected areas, offering up sweeping plains of woodland, dense pockets of monsoon rainforest, clusters of mangrove, soaring rock bluffs, and terraces of rice paddy where the humans of the south have made their mark on the landscape.

Of course, it’s the wildlife that the biggest pull here, and Yala National Park tour guides help reveal a veritable parade of sights for the safari-goer: proud, pink flamingos; big-beaked pelicans; thundering elephant herds; the curious red loris; Sri Lankan sloth bears; flying snakes; green turtles – the list goes on! Many a visitors come specifically for the leopards too, which coalesce here in higher numbers than anywhere else on Earth.