A complete guide to Yala National Park

Yala National Park, also called Ruhuna National Park, is a protected area in Sri Lanka's south-east, spread across the Southern and Uva provinces. It covers roughly 1,000 square kilometres of the dry zone, where the land is flat, the scrub is thorny and most of the year's rain falls in a few months around the north-east monsoon.

The park is not one landscape but several. Open plains and thorn scrub give way to rock outcrops, freshwater tanks, brackish lagoons and a long, empty coastline of dunes and beach. That variety is why Yala holds so many species in a small area, and why two drives on the same day can feel completely different.

Yala's land was part of the ancient kingdom of Ruhuna, whose capital Magama stood at today's Tissamaharama. Monastic sites such as Sithulpawwa survive inside and around the park, so the scrub you drive through was once farmed and inhabited. Under British rule the area became a hunting ground, then a sanctuary from roughly 1900, and a national park in 1938.

On 26 December 2004 the Indian Ocean tsunami struck Yala's coast, destroying the Patanangala bungalow area and killing dozens of people inside the park. A memorial stands there today. The full history, the tsunami and the ancient kingdom each have their own page in this guide.

Yala is divided into five blocks, with the Yala Strict Nature Reserve closed to visitors inside the protected complex. Almost every first visit uses Block I, and the others are worth knowing about if you want quieter tracks or a second day.

The Sri Lankan leopard, an endemic subspecies, is Yala's headline animal. With no tigers or lions to compete with, it is the island's apex predator and is more often seen by day than leopards elsewhere. Sightings are never guaranteed, but two or three drives give most visitors a fair chance.

The leopard is far from the only reason to go. Wild elephants are seen on most drives, mugger crocodiles lie in nearly every waterhole, spotted deer and wild boar are everywhere, and the birdlife alone, from painted storks to Malabar pied hornbills, would justify the trip. Sloth bears are present but shy, and are most often seen from roughly May to July.

A Yala safari is a jeep drive with a driver and a tracker from the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Gates open around 6am and close around 6pm, so the usual choices are a morning drive from roughly 6am to 10 or 11am, an afternoon drive from roughly 2 or 3pm to 6pm, or a full day with a packed lunch at a designated stop. Tickets are bought at the gate, usually by your driver.

Lankan Stays & Trails books Yala with drivers who keep their distance at sightings, switch the engine off and do not race between radio calls. That approach costs nothing extra and makes a better morning for everyone, the leopard included.

Yala is driest from roughly May to September, when shrinking waterholes draw animals into the open. Most rain falls from roughly October to January, when the park is green, the tracks muddy and the visitors fewer. Block I usually closes for a few weeks from about September to mid-October; the dates change each year, so check before you book.

Time of day matters as much as month. The first hour after the gate opens is the coolest and the most active. Poya full-moon days and school holidays bring large numbers of domestic visitors, which is worth knowing when you choose your dates.