We have many good things to say about our trip to the Yala national park in Sri Lanka. However, the one thing that we must say is that the Leopards of Yala know that they are superior most in the Sri Lankan jungles since there are no Tigers there and hence depict the confident “top of the food chain” behavior. The fact that we saw 8-9 individuals during this visit is also testimonial to the fact that the Yala national park has the highest density of Leopards in the world. You can see our earlier post on  “top of the food chain walk”  and the post on “Yala Leopardess and her cubs” to get a sneak preview of the many encounters that we witnessed.

We wanted to dedicate this post to the nonchalant Leopard that was spotted by Noel on one of our safari drives. Noel, our host and owner of Leopard Safaris, was sitting in the last row of seats on the Toyota Landcruiser and  when our vehicle passed this waterhole, he turned around to look behind and spotted this cool Leopard relaxing in the shade. He reversed the vehicle to get as close as possible without intruding the comfort zone of this beautiful subject.

We were particular intrigued by the casual behavior of this Leopard. It was absolutely comfortable sitting on the muddy bank of the waterhole in plain sight, unmindful of our presence or of having been spotted by us. We thanked our lucky stars and clicked away in a frenzy.