Dunumadalawa Forest

  

The Dunumadalawa forest reserve, located in the hill capital of Kandy, is also popularly known as Wakarawatte after its original estate name -Walker’s estate. Situated on the edge of the Hantane range just south of the main town this long abandoned tea, coffee and cocoa estate encompasses the watershed for Kandy’s main reservoir. Now a looming mixed forest replete with mature jak trees, wild tea trees and extensive swaths of ironwood, it is home to several troops of toque macaque monkeys, barking deer, wild boar sounders, porcupines, civet cats, golden palm cats, fishing cats and leopards. Since October 2003 investigations have been ongoing at this site in an effort to better understand its leopard population. Whether the leopards rumored to exist in the forest indeed did so and whether they are resident or merely occasional visitors were two of the primary questions of interest.

At roughly 5 km2, the forest reserve is small and the leopards typically elusive. Using camera trap technology and long hours of tracking we have identified one resident female leopard with cub and one male. Discovering that the female was indeed a resident and not merely an infrequent visitor to the forest was significant as it underlines the importance of this reserve. That this is a resident population is further substantiated by the fact that over the past four years 3 leopards have been killed in the vicinity.