Unlikely though it sounds, there is a Perehera still grander than that of the annual Kandy Perehera – but what has it got to do with Eve and her serpents?

If walking the dogs is anything, it has to be “Ordinary Special,” especially when taken down a path of flame tree flowers. But of all these flamboyants, which is the most recalcitrant? There’s something very special - in that most ordinary of ways - about walking the dog, or dogs, in my case. It’s taken a few years to understand what the exercise is really about, but I believe that both the hounds and I have now properly taught one another how to behave so we all get the

“A series of dreadful shrieks as if coming from a soul in great agony of torment,” wrote an anguished twitcher of the Sri Lankan Spot-bellied Eagle Owl. But is it alone sounding so fierce? What other owl howls might you encounter in Sri Lanka? This podcast is a search for Sri Lanka’s notorious Devil Bird, encountering on the way, all 12 of its distinguished owls. Once upon a time, uncountable centuries ago, a woman sat down to enjoy a curry supper with her husband. With

When sleeping rough in the jungle, keep a mongoose by your feet. Guarantors of safety, the little beast is the most overlooked contender for being Man’s Best Friend. But of the many that exist throughout the world, which ones will you find in Sri Lanka? Looking at animals from a purely Kandyan perspective, in the beginning were not early life form sponges, or even aardvarks – but mongooses. For it was, according to the best of legends, mongooses who were responsible for

Sri Lanka, like ancient Rome, has strict - albeit invisible - notions of caste and class. And class, not being exclusively human, is no less apparent within its smaller mammalian world – its rodents, and rodent-like cousins: its rats, shrews, mice, and squirrels. If the island’s tiny and elite mammalian senatorial class is represented by its elephants and leopards, its more capacious equestrian class comprises its monkeys, lorises, bears, mongooses, buffalo, anteaters, otte

Scientists - and most especially fastidious taxonomists – are giddily divided about quite how many of Sri Lanka's mammals are endemic: 19? 40? But as their arguments rumble on, what are these mammals that have caused so much consternation, and where are you most likely to see them? Good parallels are not always obvious - and for Sri Lanka’s endemic mammals, the best one to hand is the notorious Forth Bridge, a cantilevered railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in Scotla

Which sea mammals can Sri Lanka rightly claim as its own – and did the Portuguese really find a mermaid on the shores of Mannar 500 years ago? Europeans first encountered mermaids in Sri Lanka 500 years ago. Just a few decades after arriving, the Portuguese, under the command of Constantino of Braganza, a cousin of the King of Portugal, tiring of the relatively successful raids upon his fleet by the Kings of Jaffna, decided war was the best way forward. His expedition, in No

Sri Lanka’s skinks have a degree of subtleness that propels that immaterial attribute into the outer galaxy - fallen angels, perfect for being not what they seem. But how can you ever tell them apart? Einstein – or perhaps it was Sun Tzu – argued that the subtle is as subtle does. If they are correct, then the very existence of this podcast threatens the salient virtue of Sri Lanka’s most elusive animals with a terrible undoing. But it’s a risk worth taking. Big, bold,

Of Sri Lanka’s bears, buffaloes and boars, which animal is its Bach? Which its Bhrams? And which is its heroic Beethoven? It is all too easy to mistake what Sri Lankans might call the “Three Big B’s” for Mr Bandaranaike Senior, Mrs Bandaranaike Senior, and Mrs Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. But in fact, Sri Lanka’s Three Big B’s are not politicians. They are its bears, buffalo, and boars. And remarkably, each beast shares a close and initial affinity with those other, and st

Though occupying barely 1% of the world's total landmass, Sri Lanka hosts well over 2% of the world's recognised bat species. But are there 28 species here? Or 29? Or 37? How exactly do you count bats? Cryptology, fractals, even Einstein’s Theory of Relativity – they all pale into bashful insignificance when compared to bat taxology. Between the kingdom within which a bat might exist, and the species to which it is classed as belonging, there are at least eight level

Sri Lanka was once home to tigers, lions, rhinos and hippos. But where are they to be found today? And what might disappear next? The mind blanks at the glare,” wrote Philip Larkin “Not in remorse — The good not done, the love not given, time Torn off unused — nor wretchedly because An only life can take so long to climb Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never; But at the total emptiness for ever, The sure extinction that we travel to And shall be l

Who was Chinta | And why does her death – and life – matter quite so much? Today is the saddest of days, for Chinta has died. The inexorable world will not stop its spin around the sun, nor will Sri Lanka pause to know this. Even in our little town of Galagedera, the news will affect just a few. But here on the estate, we all stop, deeply shocked, barely knowing how to react or what to do next. Chinta had been away from work for a day, complaining of being a little tired an