Udawalawe Safari - by Quillian

We drove in an old broken down van from Ella to Udawalawe. On the end of the drive we saw four elephants from the road. We walked up to the first one we saw and noticed other tourists feeding it bananas through the electric fence. Feeding wild animals is very bad. We thought one of the tourists was going to get zapped by the fence but unfortunately, it didn't happen.

The next morning we woke up very early, at 5:00 am. We got into an elevated pickup truck bed to go on a safari. We drove into Udawalawe National Park. At first we saw storks, jungle fowl, hawk eagles, serpent eagles, kingfishers, peacocks, hornbills, fly catchers, and bee-eaters, which are all birds. The jungle fowl looks like a small rooster with a big beautiful crest. It is the national bird of Sri Lanka. The flycatcher, kingfisher, and bee-eater are brightly colored tropical birds. The flycatcher is blue. The kingfisher is also blue. The bee-eater is green. We also saw several crocodiles basking in the sun at a muddy pool.

Later, we saw two big elephants at the watering hole. It was adorable. One on them actually walked right past us. After those two, six more came! At first, they were just drinking. Then they starting snorting it onto their backs using their trunks. It was very fun to watch the baby, the mother, the pregnant mother, the two teens, and the grandma but eventually they started pooping and peeing in their water. That was my favorite part! Ha ha ha.

The elephants in Udawalawe are a Sri Lankan subspecies of Asian Elephants. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants. Asian elephants live up to 60 years. The babies nurse for 2 years. The female babies stay with the mothers into adulthood. The males leave their mothers when they are around 14 years old. The females and young males live in family groups of 12 to 20 elephants, consisting of generations of females. The adults males are on their own but they do associate with their mother's group. The main threat to Sri Lankan elephants is habitat loss.

Our safari was amazing and adorable. Here are some of the photos we took from the safari pick-up truck.