Day 23: 31/1/12 - Mud Skiing & Night Long Treehouse Watch

Today, we went through the so called "leopard transect". There weren't any leopard signs in sight, this time. But all the excitement happened when we approached a slope of about 75 degrees and our field guides below, Veroni and Jayathilaka, told us that that was the way to go. It had rained that very morning, so the ground was nice and moist. Holding on to branches and vines, we slide our way down the muddy mountain.

We once again came across very many of these winding tree trunks, constituting many trunklets. I've come to realize that this an opportunistic adaptation that trees, such as the Nuga below, have gained over evolutionary time. As small plants, these trees send up one thin trunk to quickly shoot up through to the top of the canopy to gain optimum sunlight. The Nuga then sends down aerial roots, over time, that wrap around the original tree trunk to give it more strength and support.

The afternoon and night, until the wee hours of the morning, were spent in the tree hut. We were hoping to gain some insight about elephant movements in the night and early morning. Unfortunately, on this particular night there was little activity beyond elephant rustles in the forest about twice.

But we had some brilliant sightings in the evening at about 5 to 6 pm.

a young male

He is confronted by a villager on a bike

And turns back with almost a monkey like squeak

Once the biker retreated, he was able to cross the road and continue his journey to the tank for an evening drink

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We once more witnessed the limping, Nondia from last week. He, too, headed through the forest to the tank