Published on Vidusara 18.03.2020. For the .pdf click on this link

යම් අවිනිශ්චිත අවධානමක් සෑම තැනම තිබුනත්, හැකි තාක් ගෙදරට ම වී සිටින ලෙසට අවධානය කෙරුණු මේ ‘කොරෝනා නිවාඩුව’ අපට බොහෝ කළෙකින් අපගේ ගෙවත්තට අවධානය යොමු කිරීමට ලද දුලබ අවස්ථාවකි. ඒ නිසා ‘ගෙවත්තේ ජෛව විවිධත්වය’ ලිපි මාලාව නැවතත් මෙලෙස ආරම්භ කරන නේ, ගෙවත්තේ ඔබගේ අත්දැකීම් විදුසර හරහා බෙදා හදා ගන්නා මෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් ද කරමිනි.

රෝගීන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුම සොයා ගැනීමෙන් පසු දැන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ත් නව කොරෝනා නැතහොත් Covid-19 වෛරසය පැතිරීම වැලැක්වීම පිණිස පාසල් වසා දමා ඇති අතර, උපකාරක පන්ති මෙන්ම දහම් පාසල් පවා වසා ඇත. රජය සඳුදා සියලුම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය නොවන සේවා ස්ථානයන් ට නිවාඩුව දිනයක් ලබා දුන් අතර සමහර කාර්‍යාල වල සේවකයන් ට ගෙදර සිට වැඩ කිරීමේ පහසුකම් සලසා තිබේ. චිත්‍රපටි රඟහල, ජාතික වනෝද්‍යාන වැනි මිනිසුන් එක රැස් විය හැකි ස්ථාන වසා දමා ඇත්තේ, අත්‍යවශ්‍යම කටයුත්තකට හැරෙන්නට ගෙදරින් පිටතට නොයන ලෙස ද උපදෙස් ලබා ලබා දෙමිනි.

Gardening with family is fun and relaxing

පසු ගිය සතියේ මිනිසුන් කලබලයෙන් වෙළඳ සැල වලට දිවගියේ Covid-19 තවත් පතිරුනහොත් වෙන රටවල මෙන් එක් එක් ප්‍රදේශ යම් කාලයක ට වෙන් කර තබන්නට ක්‍රියා කිරීමක් සිදු වුවහොත්, බඩු හිගයක් ඇති වේය යන බිය නිසාය. මෙහිදී විශේෂයෙන් ම මිනිසුන් කල් තබා ගත හැකි වියලි අහාර රැස් කර ගැනීමට උත්සාහ ගත්තෝය. එහෙත් වියළි අහාර මෙන්ම අපගේ අහාරයට එළවලු, පළා මෙන්ම පළතුරු ද වැදගත් වේ. ඉතින් මෙවන් ආහාර හිගයක් සහිත කාලයකට අපට මුහුණ දීමට වුවහොත්, අපගේ සියලු ආහාර අවශ්‍යතා සපුරාගත් නොහැකි වුවත් ගෙවත්තේ ම පුළු පුළුවන් විදියට ගෙවතු වගාවක් කර ගැනීමේ වැදගත් කම Covid-19 අපට පසක් කල වැදගත් කරුණකි.

ගෙවතු වගාව නිසැකවම ‘ගෙවත්තේ ජෛව විවිධත්වය වැඩි කිරීමටත් හේතුවනු ඇත. උදාහරණයක් ලෙස කතුරු මුරුංගා ගසක් වවුවොත්, එහි බිත්තර දමන සමනලුන් ඔබේ ගෙවත්තට නිසැකයෙන්ම ඇදී එනු ඇත. එළවලු වල මල් පිපෙන කාලයේ ඒවාට මිමැස්සන් වැනි කෘමින් පැමිණෙනු ඇත. (හැබැයි, මෙසේ ගෙවත්තට ඇදෙන සමහර කෘමින් නම් වගාවේ පලිබෝධකයන් විය හැකිය. ස්වාභාවික පලිභෝධනාෂක භාවිතයෙන්, මෙවැනි බොහෝ පලිභෝධකයන් පාලනය කර ගැනීමට උත්සාහ කිරීමට හැකිවේ.)

ඔබත් ගෙවතු වගාව පටන් ගැනීමට කැමැත්තේ නම්, ඒ පිළිබද ව විස්තර බොහොමයක් අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ සිංහල භාෂාවෙන්ම ලබා ගැනීමේ පහසුකම් දැන් තිබේ. කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ නිල වෙබ් අඩවිය හරහා මෙන්ම Facebook, Youtube හි තිබෙන විවිධ සමුහයන් ඔස්සේ ඔබට දැනුවත් විය හැකිය. ගෙවතු වගාවේදී ඔබට ඇතිවන ප්‍රශ්නත් මේ සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ ක්‍රියාත්මක සමූහයන් හි සිටින පළපුරුදු වගාකරුවන් ගෙන් ලබා ගැනීම පහසුවේ.

පැල කිරීමට සුදානම් බණ්ඩක්කා බිජ

පැල කිරීමට සුදානම් බිජ

මිට අමතරව කෘෂිකර්ම දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක ‘කෘෂි උපදේශන සේවාව’ 1920 දුරකතනය ඔස්සේ අමතිමෙන්ද ඔබට ගෙවතු වගාව ගැන උපදෙස් ලබාතත හැකිවේ.

ගමන් බිමන් නොගොස් ගෙතුළ ම හිර වී සිටින මේ දින කීපයේ ගෙවතු වගාවට යොමු වීමට අමතරව, ඔබ ගෙවත්තේ ජෛව විවිධත්වය පිළිබදවත් අවධානය යොමු කළ හැකිවේ.

* මේ ගෙවෙන්නේ නිහැරී කුරුල්ලන් මෙරට ගත කරන අවසාන සති කිහිපයයි. පසුගිය වසරේ සැප්තැම්බර/ ඔක්තෝබර කාලයේදී මෙරටට පියඹා පැමිණි නිල්-පෙද බිඟුහරයන් (Blue-tailed bee-eater), ආසියා රැහැන් මාරා (Asian Paradise Flycatcher) වැනි ගෙවත්ත ආශ්‍රිත කුරුල්ලන් තවමත් දැක ගත හැකි වන අතර ඔවුන් සියල්ලක් ම පාහේ මාර්තු මාසය අවසන් වනවිට නැවතත් තම නිජභූමි බලා ගමන අරඹයි.

* ශ්‍රී ලංකාව මේ දිනවල නියඟයකට මුහුණ පා සිටී. දිවා කාලයේ දී දරාගත නොහැකි රස්නයක් තිබෙන අතර, කුරුල්ලන් මෙන්ම අනිකුත් සතුන්ද ජාල හිගයකින් පීඩා විදි. කුරුල්ලන් ට දියබිමට සහ නෑමට වතුර බදුනක් තැබීමෙන් ඔබට මේ කුරුල්ලන් ට උදව්වක් කරන්නා මෙන්ම, ඔවුන් ඔබගේ ගෙවත්තට ම වැඩිපුර ගෙන්වා ගැනීමට හැකිවේ.

* ඉදිරියට එළඹෙන්නේ අවුරුදු සමයයි. අවුරුද්දේ පණිවිඩකරු වන කොහා තම ගීතය ගායනය ආරම්බ කරන්නේ මේ කාලයේ දිය. ඔබත් කන් යොමා අසා සිටින්න, ඔබගේ ගෙවත්ත ආසන්නයේ කොහා තම අවුරුදු ගීත ගායනය මුලින් ම සිදු කරන්නේ කවදා ද කියා.

• To get to know more about common garden birds, visit following link
  http://www.gardenbirdwatch.wordpress.com/ 
• You are also invited to post your observations of home garden biodiversity on the Field Ornithology Group’s Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/fogsl/permalink/3004063172969895/

You can bring birds by giving water to them (c) Fonny de Fonseka

Curfew doesn’t apply for garden birds (c) Mohan Hathnapitiya

You are invited to watch garden birds and share them on the FOGSL FB page https://www.facebook.com/groups/fogsl/

The trail to the summit cuts across the biodiversity-rich Peak Wilderness Sanctuary. It was on the edge of this busy trail that herpetologist Mendis Wickramasinghe rediscovered the Kandyan dwarf toad (Adenomus kandianus), thought to be extinct for nearly 133 years.

Wickramasinghe and his team also rediscovered two more amphibians, the starry shrub frog or Kelaart’s starry shrub frog (Pseudophilautus stellatus) and the webless shrub frog (Pseudophilautus hypomelas), previously categorized as extinct, and eight species new to science from this important habitat.

“The Peak Wilderness Sanctuary is a very significant site for amphibians, but the solid waste generated as a result of the pilgrims polluting the area, specially its waterways, has a direct impact to the amphibians,” Wickramasinghe told Mongabay.

He was instrumental in pushing for the location to be identified as one of three key amphibian conservation priority areas in Sri Lanka, along with the Sinharaja Forest Reserve and the Knuckles Forest Reserve, during a recent Amphibian Red List Assessment workshop in Sri Lanka.

Local assessment after 15 years

The global IUCN Red List assessment for the amphibians of Sri Lanka brought together more than 25 scientists engaged in amphibian research. It was a chance to share their data to map the distribution and abundance of amphibians to update each species’ conservation status under the IUCN Red List.

The assessment workshop, held from Feb. 17-20, was facilitated by the IUCN’s Amphibian Red List Authority and supported by Dilmah Conservation.

The new assessment has raised red flags over the state of the country’s amphibians. “Of the 116 species currently recognized from Sri Lanka, 72 are threatened with extinction,” Madhava Meegaskumbura, the co-chair of the National Amphibian Specialist Group, told Mongabay. “Twenty of them were assessed as critically endangered; which means that unless recovery programs are designed and implemented immediately, they stand a high risk of becoming extinct.”

Sri Lanka’s first global amphibian assessment was in 2004, when its official count of amphibian species stood at 107 and the assessment showed 54 as threatened and 10 as critically endangered. The 2004 assessment also listed 21 species as extinct because they had not been recorded in more than 50 years, making Sri Lanka one of the countries experiencing a rapid decline in its amphibian population.

The number of amphibian species recorded from Sri Lanka doubled at the next count in 2005, but because work was still in an early phase, there was only limited information on the distributions of many species.

“Today, there are many scientists and conservationists working on amphibians and there is ample data on the distributions of species, populations, population trends and habitats,” Meegaskumbura said. “Also, over a dozen new species have been described during the past 15 years, and these needed to be assessed for the first time, too — so the recent Red List workshop was necessary to inform the conservation efforts of Sri Lanka’s amphibians.”

The group also identified the most immediate threat to Sri Lanka’s amphibians as coming from the rapid loss of the island’s wet-zone forests, caused by illegal encroachment.  Declining rainfall, longer dry periods and rainwater acidification, especially in the central hills at elevations above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet), also pose serious threats to the island’s already vanishing amphibian populations. An indirect yet strong threat also comes from chemicals used in agriculture, which are carried into forest regions by the wind and washing into waterways from farms and plantations.

Drastic decline

The populations of several species have undergone drastic crashes in the past 15 years, the scientists concluded. For example, the Nöllert’s toad (Duttaphrynus noellerti), assessed as endangered in 2004, is now considered critically endangered. The reasons for the crash in its population are not fully understood, but it could be due to the drying of rainforest streams and natural pools, or agrochemicals used in nearby homesteads and farms, Meegaskumbura said.

Similarly, several shrub frogs such as the elegant shrub frog (Pseudophilautus decoris), Moore’s shrub frog (P. mooreorum), golden-eyed shrub frog P. ocularis and Stuart’s shrub frog (P. stuarti) have gone from endangered to critically endangered during that same period. These worrying trends suggest that there are serious problems with environmental and conservation efforts, according to the group that carried out the assessment.

While much exploration and research efforts have been carried out, there has been little in the way of conservation initiatives, whether directed at threatened species or the sites they inhabit, according to Rohan Pethiyagoda, a taxonomist and a naturalist who earlier served as deputy chair of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission.

Pethiyagoda, whose team was responsible for describing a large number of new-to-science amphibians in 2005, played a leading role in initiating the recent assessment workshop.

“Despite its small size, Sri Lanka has about 2.5% of the world’s frog and toad species. Sri Lanka needs a scientific conservation framework if we need to conserve these threatened creatures,” Pethiyagoda said.

The assessment workshop also resulted in the revision of the number of amphibian species in Sri Lanka, with four species previously considered distinct being merged into other species. When the assessment workshop commenced, the number of known Sri Lankan amphibian species was 120; following the revisions, the figure is now 116. These revisions, however, still need to be published in peer-reviewed journals to gain global acceptance.

The final outcomes of the 2020 Red List assessment of Sri Lankan amphibians is expected to undergo rigorous technical scrutiny ahead of publication by December.

Banner image of the cheeky shrub frog, or Pseudophilautus procax, a critically endangered species inhabiting the eastern region of the Sinharaja Forest Reserve and now showing drastic population decline, courtesy of Erich Joseph. Published on Mongabay 23.03.2020 https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/new-assessment-shows-sri-lankas-amphibians-being-pushed-to-the-brink/

Published on Vidusara on 27.May.2020 http://www.vidusara.com/2020/05/27/viduindex.htm

සෑම වසරකම මේ කාර්තුව ගෙවතු ආශ්‍රිතව හමුවන බොහෝමයක් කුරුල්ලන් ගේ සුවදි සමයේ අවසාන කාර්තුවයි. කැදලි වලින් දොරට වැඩිම් මේ කාලයේ දී බහුලව සිදුවන බැවින් අනතුරුවලට මුහුණ දී තුවාල වූ හෝ හරිහැටි පියඹීමට නොහැකි කුරුළු පැටවුන් ද මුණගැසීමට අවස්තාවන් ද මේ කාලයේදී සමහර විට ඔබට ද මුහුණ දීමට සිදු වීමට හැකිය.

මෙවන් අත්දැකීමක් රාජගිරිය ප්‍රදේශයේ ජිවත් වන රෝහිත මෙන්ඩිස් හට තම ගෙවත්තේ දී මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවිය. කුරුලන් නරඹද්දී රෝහිතගේ අවධානය යොමුවූයේ ගෙවත්තේ ගසක් යට වැටි සිටි කුරුළු පැටවෙකු දෙසටයි. ශරීරය කෙටි කළු පිහාටු වලින් වැසි තිබුණු කුරුළු පැටවාගේ හිසේ කිරුලේ තිබු රතු පැහැති පිහාටු නිසා ඒ කැරළ කුරුළු පැටවෙකු බව හඳුනා ගත හැකි විය. අසල ගසක බෙනයක තිබූ කදල්ලකින් වැටී තිබුණු මේ කෑරල පැටියා ගේ දෙමාපිය කුරුල්ලන් එන තෙක් බොහෝ වෙලා බලා සිටියත්, පෙනෙන්නට නොසිටි හෙයින්, පිහාටු වැඩෙන තෙක් බලා ගැනීමට රෝහිතට සිදු විය.

කැලණියෙ හි වාසය කරන නිශාන්ති පෙරේරා ගේ ගෙවත්තේ දුටුවේ දී දුටුයේ සාමාන්යෙන් දක්නට නොලැබෙන දසුනක් වූ උකුසු (Shikra) පැටවෙකි. අසල වූ දැවැන්ත අඹ ගසක දී දෙමාපියන් විසින් මුලදී ආහාර ලබා දෙන අයුරුත්, ඉන් පසුව උකුසු පැටවාම දෙමාපියන් විසින් අල්ලා ගෙනවුත් දෙන ගොදුරු තනිවම ආහාරයට ගන්නා අයුරු තම ගෙවත්තේ සිටම නිරීක්ෂණයට නිශාන්ති හට අවස්ථාව ලැබිණි.

සාවිත්‍රී අමේන්ද්‍රා තම මිතුරෙකු ගේ මාදිවෙල දී ගෙවත්තක දී දුටුවේ එල්ලෙන බදුනක තිබු කැදැල්ලකි. මෙය බැම-සුදු කොන්ඩ කුරුල්ලෙකු ගේ බව පසුව තහවුරු විය. මෙසේ ඉහත සදහන් කෙරුනේ ගෙවතු වලදී පසු ගිය සති කිහිපයේ දී දක්නට ලැබුණු කුරුළු කැදලි සහ දොරට වැඩීම් පිළබදව නිරිශ්යන් කිහිපයක් පමණි.

මාර්තු සිට අප්‍රෙල්/මැයි මාස වලදී ගෙවතු ආශ්‍රිතව ජීවත් වන බොහෝ කුරුල්ලන් කැදලි තැනීම සිදු කරයි. ඉතින් මේ කැදලි තනන සමයේ කොතරම් දේවල් අපේ ගෙවත්තේ නිරීක්ෂණයට තිබේ ද..?

මහාචාර්ය සරත් කොටගමගේ ‘සිරි ලක කුරුල්ලෝ’ අත් පොතේ අර්ථ දැක්වීම අනුව ‘සුවැදීම’ (Breed) යනු පැටවෙකු බිහි කිරීමේ මුළු කටයුත්තටම පුළුල් ලෙසින් ද පටු ලෙසින් ද යොදා ගත හැකි වචනයකි. සහකරු තේරීමේ සිට පෙරපෙම් හැසිරීම් ඔස්සේ ලිංගික එක්වීම තෙක් ද ඉන් පසු කැදලි තේරීම, කැදලි තැනීම, බිත්තර දැමීම, බිත්තර රැක්විම, පැවවුන් බිහි කිරීම, පැටවුන්ට කැවීම, පැටවුන් රැක බලා ගැනීම, පැටවුන් කුඩුවෙන් පිටතට එක කර ගෙන යාම යන කටයුතු සහ අන්තිමේදී පටවා නිවහල් සතෙකු බවට පත් වීම දක්වා සියලු කටයුතු පුළුල් අරුතින් සුවැදීමට අයත්වේ. පටු ලෙස අර්ථ දැක්වීමේ දී කුඩුව තැනීම ඇරඹීමේ සිට පැටව කුඩුවෙන් පිට වීම තෙක් වූ සියලු කටයුතුවලට සුවදීම යයි කියනු ලැබේ.

සුවැදීමට, එනම් පැටවෙකු බිහි කිරීමේ මුළු කටයුත්තට අදාළ කෙරුම් රැසක් කුරුල්ලන් හදුනාගැනීමට ද උදව් වේ. මේ කෙරුම් අතර සහකරු තේරීම, කැදලි තැනීම, බිත්තර රැකීම සහ පැටවුන් රැක ගැනීම වෙයි. ඒවාට අදාලව මානාවන් හොට පිළිහැඬවීම (Beak rattling – හඩක් නිකුත් වන පරිදි කුරුල්ලෙකු තම හොටයේ හනු දෙක නැවත නැවත ගටවා ගැනීම), කොන්ඩයන් සහ පොල්කිච්චන් පියාපත් විතිරවමින් නැටීම, කෑදැත්තා සිය කිරිල්ලිය කැදැල්ල තුල මැටි ගසා සිර කිරීම, කපුටන් සහ දෙමලිච්චන් සමාජ පීරිමේ (Social preening -තම හොටයෙන් එකිනෙකා ගේ පිහාටු පීරා දීම/පිරිමැදීම) යෙදීම යන කටයුතු නිදසුන් කිහිපයකි.

කුරුළු පැටවුන් නිරීක්ෂණයේදී ද පරිස්සම් විය යුතුය. බොහෝවිට දෙමාපියන් තම පැටවුන් ආරක්ෂාකාරී තැනක තබා ආහාර සොයා යන අවස්ථා තිබේ. එවන් අවස්ථාවක තනිවම සිටින පැටවුන් ඔබගේ පැමිණීමෙන් කලබල වී එම ආරක්ෂාකාරී තැනින් ඉවත් වීමෙන් ලෙහ්සියෙන් විලොපිකයෙකුට ගොදුරුවීමට ඉඩ තිබේ. ඕනෑවට වඩා කිට්ටු වීමෙ දී කලබල වී පැටවුන් දෙමාපියන් ගෙන් වෙන් වීම ද විය හැකිය. නිරීක්ෂණයේ දී හෝ ජායාරුප ගැනීමේදී සැම විටම කුරුල්ලන් ගේ ආරක්ෂාව සැමවිටම ප්‍රමුඛ ව සැලකිය යුතු බව මතකයේ තබා ගන්න.

කැදැල්ලක් අනතුරට පත් වී හෝ කුරුළු පැටවකු එලියට වැටි සිටියහොත් කල යුතු හොඳම දේ, ගෙදර රැගෙන විත් ආරක්ෂා කිරීමට වඩා දෙමාපිය කුරුල්ලන් වෙත බාර දීමයි. එවන් පැටවකු මුනගසුනහොත් හැකියාවක් ඇතොත් නැවත කැදැල්ලේ තබන්න. තුවාල වී සිටිනම් හෝ දෙමාපිය කුරුල්ලන් ඒ අවට නැතිනම් පමණක් ම  මෙවන් අනතුරට පත් කුරුල්ලන් ට උදව් කිරීමට උත්සාහ කරන්න.  කොළඹ අවටින් මුණ ගැසුන කරදරයට පත් කුරුල්ලකු නම් වනජීවී දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව යටතේ අත්තිඩියේ ක්‍රියාත්මක කරදරයට පත් වන සතුන් බේරාගැනීමේ සහ පුනරුත්තාපනය කිරීමේ මධ්‍යස්ථානය (දුරකථන අංක 0113604147) වෙත භාර දිය හැකිය.

පහත දක්වනුයේ අප ගෙවතු ආශ්‍රිතව දැකගත හැකි පොදු කුරුල්ලන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුගේ සුවැදී සමයන් ලෙස මහාචාර්ය කොටගම ගේ ‘සිරි ලක කුරුල්ලෝ’ කුරුළු අත්පොතෙහි දැක්වෙන කාලයන් වේ.  සමහර කුරුල්ලන් ට සුවැදී සමයන් දෙකක් තිබෙන අතර සමහරෙකු ට නිශ්චිත සුවදි සමයක් දැක්විය නොහැක (නැතහොත්, එවන් කුරුල්ලන් ගේ කැදලි වසර පුරාම විටින් විට දැක ගත හැකිවේ).  සමහර කුරුල්ලන් මෙහි දැක්වෙන කාලයන් ට අමතර වද කැදලි තැනීම සිදු කිරීමට ඉඩ තිබෙන අතර, නිසි ලෙස වාර්තා කල ඔබගේ නිරීක්ෂණයන් කුරුළු විද්‍යාඥයන්ට තම දත්ත යාවත්කාල කරගනිමට උපකාරී වනු ඇත. ඒ නිසා ඔබගේ ගෙවත්ත හෝ අවටින් ද මෙවැනි කැදැල්ලක් හෝ පැටව් නිරීක්ෂණයන් ක්ෂේත්‍ර පක්ෂි අධ්‍යයන කවය වෙත email මගින් ලබා දෙන්න gardenbirdwatch.srilanka@gmail.com.

දෙමලිච්චා – මාර්තු-මැයි (මුල් වතාව) අගෝස්තු – නොවැම්බර් (දෙවැනි)

පොල්කිච්චා : සුවදීම අවුරුද්ද පුරාම සිදුවිය හැකි වුවද මුල් වන්නේ මාර්තු සිට සැප්තැම්බර මාස

ඉන්දු කලුකිච්චා : මාර්තු-සැප්තැම්බර්

බැම සුදු පවන්පෙන්දා : අප්‍රේල්-මැයි

කව්ඩා : පෙබරවාරි – මැයි

පොලොස් කොට්ටෝරුවා: පෙබරවාරි සිට ජූලි (පළමු) අගෝස්තු-සැප්තැම්බර් (දෙවැනි)

රත්-කෑරලා (black-rumped Flameback) : මාර්තු-ජුනි (පළමු) අගෝස්තු-සැප්තැම්බර් (දෙවැනි)

ගේ කුරුල්ලා : වසර පුරාම

ලෝටන් සූටික්කා (Loten’s Sunbird) : පෙබරවාරි-මැයි 

ලාතුඩු පිළිලිච්චා : ජනවාරි-අගෝස්තු

කහ කුරුල්ලා : ඔක්තෝබර්-මැයි

මයිනා: මාර්තු-සැප්තැම්බර්

රෑන ගිරවා: සුවදි සමය නොවැම්බර් සිට ජුනි දක්වා යැයි පොදුවේ සැලකුවත් වසරේ ඕනෑම විටෙක පැටවුන් මෙන්ම සුවැදී හැසිරීම් දැක ගත හැකිවේ

ළයසුදු කොරවක්කා: අප්‍රේල්-අගෝස්තු

බමුණු පියාකුස්සා : ඔක්තෝබර් – අප්‍රේල්

මොණරා : දෙසැම්බර් – මැයි

රත් යටිමල් කිරළා : අප්‍රේල් – අගෝස්තු

අළු කොබෙයියා : සුවැදී සමය අවුරුද්ද මුළුල්ලේම වාගේ පැතිරේ. එහෙත් පෙබරවාරි-ජුනි / අගෝස්තු-සැප්තැම්බර් මුල් තැන් ගනී

නීල මහගොයා : දෙසැම්බර් – මැයි

කොව්ලා : සුවැදී සමය පොදුවේ අප්‍රේල්-අගෝස්තු දක්වා

ඇටි-කුකුළා (Greater Coucal) : සුවැදී සාමය පෙබරවාරි-සැප්තැම්බර් (පළමු) / ඔක්තෝබර් – දෙසැම්බර් (දෙවැනි)

කරපටි කන්බස්සා (Collared scops owl) : පෙබරවාරි-මැයි

ළයසුදු පිළිහුඩුවා : දෙසැම්බර්-ජුනි (මාර්තු/අප්‍රේල් මාස වල සුලබයි)

කොණ්ඩයා : මාර්තු-මැයි  / අගෝස්තු-සැප්තැම්බර්

බට්ටිච්චා: සුවැදී සමය අවුරුද්ද පුරාම පවතී. පෙබරවාරි – මැයි මුල් මාස වේ

කොරෝනා බිය නිසා ගුවන් තොටුපළ ට එන්නේ සිමා සහිත ගුවන් යානා කිහිපයක් පමණි. සංචාරකයන් ට විසා නිකුත් කිරීම තවමත් අරඹා නැත. විශේෂ අවසර සහිතව ලංකාවට පැමිණෙන අයත් සති කිහිපයක් ම නිරෝධායනට යටත් විය යුතු වේ. එසේ වුවත් මේ සංචාරක සිමා තඹයකටවත් ගණන් නොගන්නා කුරුළු සංචාරක නඩ නම් මේ වනවිටත් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව වෙත පැමිණීම ආරඹා තිබේ.

ලෝකයේ කුරුළු රටාසමයන් ගෙන් 20% (කුරුළු වර්ග 2000 ක් පමණ) කාලයකදී වෙනත් ප්‍රදේශවලට ගොසින්, නැවතත් ආපසු පැමිණෙන හැසිරීමක් දක්වයි. බොහෝවිට සුවදි බිම (breeding ground) සහ ආහාර සුලබ බිම් (feeding ground) අතර වාර්ෂිකව සිදුවන ගමන නිහැරිම ලෙස හදුන්වයි. සංචාරක පක්ෂීන් නැතහොත් පර්යටනය කරනා පක්ෂීන් ලෙස ද සමහරුන් විසින් හදුන්වන්නේ මෙම නිහැරී කුරුල්ලන් වේ.  

ලංකාවේ දී වාර්තා වුනු කුරුළු රටාසමයන් 200 ක ට වැඩි ප්‍රමාණක් නිහැරී කුරුල්ලන් වේ. මෙය ලංකාවේ වාර්තා වී ඇති මුළු කුරුළු රටාසමයන් ගෙන් අඩකටත් වඩා වැඩි අගයකි. ඉන්දියානු උප මහාද්වීපයේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව පිහිටි තැන අනුව එය ඉන්දියාවෙන් දකුණු දෙසට ඇති අවසන් ගොඩබිම වේ. අපගේ දිවයිනේ සිට දකුණු ධ‍්‍රැවය තෙක් අන් කිසිදු ගොඩබිමක් නොමැති නිසා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඉන්දියාව දෙසින් දකුණු දෙසට එන කුරුල්ලන්ගේ ගමනේ කෙළවර වේ. වෙනත් පියාසර මඟ ඔස්සේදී ශ්‍රී ලංකාව බලා පැමිණෙන නිහාරියන් අප්‍රේල් පමණ වන තෙක්ම මෙහි රැඳී සිටි.

මෙයින් සමහරෙක් ඉතාමත් දුර්ලභ වන අතර, වරක් දෙවරක් පමණක් වාර්තා වුනු කුරුළු රටාසමයන් ද ඒ අතර වෙයි. එහෙන් ජනාකීර්ණ ප්‍රදේශවලත්, ගෙවතුවලත් ඉතා සුලබව දැකගත හැකි නිහැරියන් කීප දෙනෙකු ම සිටිති.  

ඔබගේ ගෙවත්තේ හා ඒ අවට ද මෙවැනි සුලභව දැක ගත හැකි පොදු නිහැරී කුරුල්ලන් ද ඉදිරි සති කීපයේ දී පැමිණීම ට හැකි නිසා, එවැනි රටාසමයන් කීප දෙනෙකු කෙටියෙන් ජයාරූප සමග හදුන්වා දෙන්නෙමු. ඔබේ ගෙවත්තේත් මෙබදු නිහැරී කුරුල්ලකු දුටුවහොත්, මුලින් ම එම කුරුල්ලා දුටු දිනය, වෙලාව සටහන් කරගෙන අප වෙත ලියා එවන්න.

• නිල්-පෙඳ බිගුහරයා (Blue-tailed Bee-eater)

ඉතාමත් පොදු නිහැරියෙකි. කොළඹ වැනි ජනාකීර්ණ ප්‍රදේශ වලත් දැකගත හැකි වේ. ඇන්ටෙනා, විදුලි කම්බි වල නිතර දක්නට ලැබෙන නිල්-පෙඳ බිගුහරයා, සුලබ නිහැරියන් අතරින්, මුලින්ම පාහේ නෙත ගැටෙන කුරුල්ලා ය.

• අටු වැහිලිහිණියා (Barn Swallow)

කුඩා කුරුල්ලෙකු වූ අටු වැහිලිහිණියා රාත්‍රියේ දී රංචුවක් ලෙස ලැඟුම් ගැනීමට ප්‍රිය කරයි. රත්නපුරය ප්‍රදේශයේ විදුලි කම්බි වල දහස් ගණනින් රාත්‍රියේ ලැගුම් ගන්නේ මේ අටු වැහිලිහිනියන් වේ.

කැලෑ හැලපෙන්දා (Forest Wagtail)

තම පෙඳය රටාවකට වනමින් ගෙවත්තේ බිම ආහාර සොයමින් ගැවසෙන කුරුල්ලෙකි කැලෑ හැලපෙන්දා. ඉතාමත් ක්‍රියාශීලි කුරුල්ලෙකි.

ආසියා සුදු රැහන්මාරා (Asian Paradise Flycatcher)

සුදු රෙදි හොරා ලෙස ද පොදු ව්‍යවහාරයේදී හැදින්වෙන මේ කුරුල්ලා ගේ පිරිමි සතාගේ පමණක් දිගු පෙඳයක් පිහිටයි. ගැහැණු කුරුල්ලා රතු-දුඹුරු පැහැයක් ගන්නා අතර පිරිමි කුරුල්ලාගේ කුඩා කාලයේදී ද ඈත්තේ රතු-දුඹුරු වර්නයකි.

අවිච්චියා (Indian Pitta)

ඉතාමත් වර්ණවත් කුරුල්ලෙකු වූ අවිච්චියා මදක් පමාවී ලංකාව වෙත පැමිණෙන නිහැරී කුරුල්ලෙකි. බිම වැටී දිරායන කොළරොඩු අවුස්සමින් ගොදුරු සොයන අවිච්චියෙකු ගෙවත්තේත් සිටී දැයි විමසිලිමත් වන්න.

ජයාරූපය : එවර්ට්ස් රැන්ලේ   

• බොර සබරිත්තා (Brown Shrike)

කෘමීන් මෙන්ම කුඩා කටුස්සන් වැන්නන් ද ආහාරයට ගන්නා බොර සබරිත්තා, වැටක කටු කම්බියක වැනි උලක තම ගොදුර අමුණා සෙමින් ආහාරයට ගන්නා විශේෂ ආහාර ගැනීමේ හැසිරීමක් ද පෙන්වයි.

දුඹුරු මැසිමාරා (Brown Flycatcher)

කුඩා කුරුල්ලකු වූ දුඹුරු මැසිමාරා ද සමහර ගෙවතු වල දැකගත හැකි කුඩා කුරුල්ලෙකි. වර්ණවත් කුරුල්ලෙකු නොවුනත් ප්‍රිය උපදවන කුරුල්ලෙකි.

ජයාරූපය : එවර්ට්ස් රැන්ලේ   

Published on SundayTimes on 21.02.2021 https://www.sundaytimes.lk/210221/news/end-silo-approach-to-marine-research-scientist-urges-433244.html

It is to Sri Lanka’s credit that there are so many bodies engaged in ocean science research but it is vital that data is pooled so that the country can learn how to use marine resources without destroying them, a leading scientist said.

Professor Charitha Pattiaratchi’s call comes at the start of the United Nations’ Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-31), aimed at raising awareness of the challenges and opportunities provided by the oceans.

Among the many government agencies involved in marine research are the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), Department of Fisheries Resources, Department of Coast Conservation, the navy and coast guards, as well as the Department of Meteorology and the Disaster Management Centre, which collect data on specific aspects of oceans.

Then there are the universities conducting oceanic research, with the Ocean University and University of Ruhuna in the lead. Added to this are non-governmental organisations and private research bodies studying ocean sciences.

“It is important to share data and to have proper coordination of the different responsibilities in order to achieve better results in the area of ocean science” said Dr. Pattiaratchi, Professor of Coastal Oceanography of the University of Western Australia’s Ocean’s Institute.

“Sri Lanka also has an International Centre of Excellence on the Marine Environment sponsored by the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). This has been dormant for many years and the ocean decade could be a good starting point to reactivate it,” Prof. Pattiaratchi pointed out.

Research is critical for Sri Lanka’s fishing industry. Lack of scientific data has led many fish species to the brink of extinction due to overfishing, marine biologist Daniel Fernando, co-founder of Blue Resources Trust, told the Sunday Times. Mr. Fernando recommends that the government increase monitoring of the fishing industry and work closely with NGOs in research.

NARA said it wants to increase research activity in the Ocean Decade. It said it continues to collect data on fish stocks in Sri Lankan waters, building on the survey initiated by the Norwegian research vessel, Dr Fridtjof Nansen in 2018.

NARA’s research vessel, Samudrika, has been conducting marine research around Sri Lanka since 2012, the head of NARA’s Marine Biological Resources Division, Dr. Sisira Haputhantri, said.

The Chairman of the National Science Foundation, Prof. Ranjith Senaratne, points out that while the country has about 200 degree courses, only a handful of these relate to oceanic science.

“Only about six courses (less than 3 per cent) deal with fisheries and ocean sciences. This is despite the fact that Sri Lanka has an Exclusive Economic Zone (maritime area) eight times its landmass,” Prof. Senaratne, a former vice chairman of the University Grants Commission, said.

“Given the fact that Sri Lanka’s future prosperity lies in the ocean, Sri Lankan universities should offer more courses related to fisheries, marine science, marine engineering, ocean resource engineering, port management., sea sports and maritime recreation, nautical science, fibreglass technology and boat-building and so on.

State-of-the-art Norwegian research vessel Dr Fridtjof Nansen conducted research in Sri Lanka

“We need to harness the biological, chemical and physical marine resources of the country which hitherto remain almost untouched and untapped,” Prof. Senaratne said.

Prof. Pattiaratchi said that while the populations of Australia and Sri Lanka are similar in numbers, there were about 1,000 times more scientists working on ocean research.

“Lack of interest in studying ocean sciences could also be cultural,” he pointed out, noting that in Sri Lanka, most people aspire to become doctors and engineers, with very few taking up ocean sciences.

“Sri Lankans have very limited interaction with the sea. We do not have a culture of using the sea for recreation work such as swimming, surfing or diving so, there is a lack of interaction with the ocean and a lack of new blood wanting to become ocean explorers,” said Dr. Pattiaratchi, adding that he had been determined from the age of 14 to become a marine scientist.

Pioneering clean-up by Matara volunteers A hundred volunteers gathered at Matara beach for clean-up operations heard how important their work was in a country where many fail to understand the importance of ensuring a clean ocean.The head of the Marine Environment Protection Authority, Dr. Terney Pradeep Kumara, told the volunteers cleaning up Matara’s main beach on the Poya holiday last month that they were acting on one of the Ocean Decade’s priorities: eliminating sources of ocean pollution.The Matara operation was important for the area: beach cleaning programmes are common at beaches closer to Colombo but rarely found elsewhere.A speciality of the programme at Matara is that it is driven purely by volunteers. Its mastermind, eye surgeon Dr. Priyanga Iddawela, said that having been raised in Kandy he lacked interaction with the ocean. He urged residents of coastal areas not to pollute their environment.

Let science drive the solutions, president told

Published on SundayTimes on 14.03.2021 https://www.sundaytimes.lk/210314/news/no-more-chasing-of-non-problem-elephants-into-wilpattu-experts-436244.html

A pair of happy Wilpattu elephants enjoying a frolic in a lake. They too will suffer if more elephants get driven into the park. Pic by Namal Kamalgoda

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s offer of driving elephants away from a village area into the Wilpattu National Park has been cried down by prominent conservationists who say such drives have achieved nothing and the government should use its own science-based action plan, lying in limbo since last December.

At a recent meeting with villagers of Karuwalagaswewa in the Puttalam District, the president was heard instructing officials to look at the possibility of driving elephants out of the area into Wilpattu and fencing them off.

The meeting was the 11th in the series of “Gama Samaga Pilisandara” (Dialogue with Villages) discussions initiated by Mr. Rajapaksa. It was held on February 20 in the village of Karuwalagaswewa. About 1533 people live in the area, and their livelihoods mainly depend on paddy and chena cultivation.

One of the main demands put to the president was that elephants be chased away from the village and that an electric fence be erected to keep the animals out of homes and farms.

“We cannot even step out of our homes after 6 p.m.  as elephants roam in the area. What we cultivate is also often destroyed by the elephants,” one villager complained.

President Rajapaksa expressed sympathy for the villagers’ plight, saying they suffered from an endless tug-of-war between officials, their respective institutions and local elected officials and that human-elephant conflict needed a permanent solution. He was afterwards heard asking his officials to consider driving the animals out of the area.

Elephant experts said large-scale elephant drives would not work and begged the government to follow the recommendations of the Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Action Plan submitted by a government-appointed presidential committee last December.

“Elephant drives are not a successful solution,” the convener of Biodiversity Conservation and Research Circle of Sri Lanka, Supun Lahiru Prakash, said. “The government would just waste public money for solutions proved to be a failure.”

Lone male elephants are the main crop raiders, he explained, but it was mainly the herds, consisting of females and young animals, that were targeted in drives.

“So, the trouble-makers stay in the area and the others become trapped in the wilderness, starving, as there is a limit to what an ecosystem can support,” Mr. Prakash said.

While it is a large sanctuary, the habitat of Wilpattu National Park is not suited to supporting a high density of elephants, Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya, the former director-general of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) pointed out.

“Studies done in Sri Lanka and India show that the density of elephants in primary and secondary forests such as Wilpattu is in the range of 0.2-0.3 elephants per square kilometre, while the density of elephants in scrub jungle and savannah grasslands is around three elephants per square kilometer,” Dr. Pilapitiya said.

“There have been many attempts to drive elephants into Wilpattu over the last 40 years, and fences have been erected to keep the elephants in the park. Had these drives and fences been successful we should not have any elephants outside Wilpattu,” he remarked.

Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando of the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCRSL), who has conducted extensive research on Asian elephants, pointed out that an elephant drive was carried out in the same area as recently as November-December 2020.

“Going by the results of that and all the previous drives that have been done there and elsewhere, we can only expect the same results,” he said.

No drive has been able to eliminate elephants from a drive area, but as a result of being driven the elephants that remain (or return) become much more aggressive towards people and, therefore, conflict increases,” according to Dr. Fernando’s research.

“If large numbers of elephants are driven out of their home ranges and fenced into protected areas the herds, invariably composed of non-problem-causing females and young, could starve to death inside the protected area,” he said.

In addition, the herds that used to be entirely inside the protected area, also starve to death because the ‘carrying capacity’ is exceeded by the forced influx of elephants.

“If the elephants seem to be a problem to village communities and agriculture, then without trying to confine elephants to Wilpattu National Park, which is tried, tested and failed solution, why not fence the villages and agriculture?” Dr. Pilapitiya queried.

“This has been successfully pilot tested in the Anuradhapura and Kurunegala districts by CCRSL for more than eight years, so in my opinion, community-based village and seasonal agricultural fences should be erected to solve the problem faced by communities in the Karuwalagaswewa area,” he added.

“The government has the option of trying a successfully demonstrated model or trying a tried, tested and failed model. It is unfortunate that the government appears to be choosing the tried, tested and failed model of elephant drives into Wilpattu National Park,” the former DWC chief said.

He said even if the government still believed – without foundation – that drives were the solution, the least it could do was monitor the translocated elephants by fitting radio collars on some males and females in herds to ascertain the success of the project.

He referred to the presidential committee report on the best ways of resolving the issue, pointing out that the report had been initiated by this government and that the committee had comprised many stakeholders.

“The committee’s suggestions include constructing community-based electric fences such as village and paddy field fences to prevent elephants entering and causing damage to settlements and crop fields,” Dr. Pilapitiya said.

“A roadmap for addressing human-elephant conflict comprehensively has been given to the government by experts.

“Based on my experience of working on human-elephant conflict issues in Sri Lanka and in many Asian and African elephant range countries, I think that this Action Plan is among the best and most practical plans I have seen.

“If the government does implement this plan fully, even on a district-by-district basis, I am very confident that we can get the conflict under control in a few years, and farmers and their crops would be protected,” Dr. Pilapitiya emphasised.

Published on SundayTimes on 21.03.2021 https://www.sundaytimes.lk/210321/news/bid-to-protect-your-favourite-fish-kelawalla-but-iotc-is-tangled-in-a-net-437003.html

While the Indian Ocean’s yellowfin tuna stocks are fast depleting, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s latest meeting ended without positive conclusions aimed at sustainable measures.

The yellowfin Tuna (Thunnus Albacares), or Kelawalla as it is popularly known locally, is probably one of the most favoured fish of Sri Lankans, but little do we know that this species is being overfished. yellowfin tuna is now categorised as ‘Near Threatened, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

With intention to take action to throw a lifeline to dwindling  tuna stocks, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) held a special meeting last week. The meeting’s aim was to introduce catch limits and other measures to sustain the tuna stocks, but it ended without a decision. However, it was decided to hold another round of talks in June.

During the special IOTC session held from March 8-12, six proposals were submitted for discussion and interestingly two of them were from Sri Lanka. One of the proposals, Sri Lanka submitted sought to set a minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) for yellowfin tuna. It proposed that to save the immature tuna fish and to ensure the sustainability of the stocks, the MCRS should be 92 cm. With tuna being caught using different methods ranging from pole-and-line, long line and purse seine nets, Sri Lanka proposed the MCRS to be applicable to all these methods.

Sri Lanka was also a co-proponent of a proposal to manage the fish aggregating devices (FAD) in the Indian Ocean. The other co-proponent was Kenya. Fish are fascinated with floating objects like logs and rafts. They congregate around them. In the open sea, fishers throw manmade floating objects to attract fish. A sophisticated FAD equipped with electronic gadgets can emit signal to the mother vessel indicating the density of the fish aggregated around it. Based on this information, the fishing vessel can decide its most economical target to cast a large purse seine net and catch all the fish aggregated around the FAD.

FADs are helpful tools for the fishing vessels, but detrimental for fish populations as they are instrumental in catching small immature tunas and bycatch of vulnerable non-target species. Initially, it was only Kenya and Sri Lanka which pushed this proposal to regulate FADs used by large vessels. Later several other countries also became its co-proponents.

However, the special meeting was more concerned about the main item on the agenda — reducing the catch limits of tuna stocks. In 2015, the IOTC Scientific Committee recommended that yellowfin tuna catches had to be reduced by 20 percent of the 2014 catch levels to bring the stocks back to a decent recovery. It is learnt that the Maldives proposed a reduction of 25 percent for purse seine, 15 percent for gill nets, 15 percent for long line, and nine percent for other methods, while the European Union, which accounts for the most of the tuna catch in the Indian Ocean, pushed for 20 percent for purse seine, 20 percent for gill nets, 20 percent for long line, 10 percent for others.

But they later agreed to a joint position of reducing the yellowfin tuna catches by 20 percent from the 2014 level with regard to purse seine, gill net and longline methods while 10 percent reduction vis-a-vis other gear types.

Many Indian Ocean states accuse the European Union of double standards as it delays more drastic cuts in Tuna catch while advocating sustainable fisheries. As per 2019 records, EU fishing vessels caught 70,000 tons of yellowfin Tuna, outstripping the Indian Ocean coastal states and pushing Iran that produced 58,000 tons to the second place and Sri Lanka and the Maldives with 44,000 tons each to the third place.

Tuna is also an important foreign exchange generator for Sri Lanka. All Island Multi-day Boat Owners’ Association president Tiron Priyantha Mendis says that IOTC allows larger catch limits for developed nations with large fishing fleets that operate in the Indian Ocean.

Many fishing vessels from EU nations, Indonesia, Korea, and Mauritius are capturing fish by using purse seine nets. This method is used in the catchment areas with fishermen trapping a large shoal of fish in a net, thus harvesting the offspring of the same fish along with the fry, he explains.

He adds: “This is a destructive system, but in our country, multiday fishing vessels use a non-destructive fishing method known as long-line fishery. In this method, a 40-50-mile-long line with 1,500-2,000 hooks is used and 100-110g of imported bait or squid bait is used. Because the bait cannot be eaten by small fish, our vessels catch only large yellowfin tuna, but IOTC approves larger limits for the EU and countries such as Taiwan.

“In terms of weight, the percentage of fish we catch is between 40 and 45kg. Our vessels catch between 50 and 200 fish per night. But large ships using the purse seines method catch between 25,000 and 50,000 fish per night. When we catch a 45kg fish, others kill about 15 small fish for a fish of similar weight. What amazes us is the increase in quotas for countries that own such destructive ships.”

Tuna is a pelagic or open ocean fish that lives as schools. Fish are cold blooded creatures that vary their temperatures with the environment, but tuna species are different as they are the only fish species that are warm-blooded. They can maintain body temperature higher than that of the surrounding water. Tuna species have bodies streamlined for fast swimming. Yellowfin tuna is said to be capable of achieving speeds of up to 75 km/h. They are marine predators preying on small fish.

The Tuna family has 15 species and overfishing has already put some tuna species on the brink of extinction with Southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus Maccoyii) now categorised as ‘Critically Endangered” or fish closer to extinction. At present the yellowfin Tuna is the mostly caught tuna species in the world. Therefore, experts stress the need to take urgent measures to avert a population plunge like what happened to their bluefin cousins.

The IOTC is an intergovernmental organisation that coordinates the regulation and management of species of tuna fish in the Indian Ocean. It was set up under the guidance of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. Established in 1996, the IOTC now have 31 nations as its members including not only Indian Ocean nations but also European Union countries whose vessels are engaged in tuna fishing in the Indian Ocean.

As IOTC requested the delegates not to speak to the media, the Sri Lankan delegates remain tightlipped despite attempts by the Sunday Times to contact them.

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/210502/news/jaw-bomb-success-story-shines-as-wild-lanka-treasures-441942.html published on SundayTimes on 21.05.2021

For three months, a young elephant that had its mouth blown apart with a cruel hakkapatas (explosive bait) was fed buckets of fresh juice and crushed grass through a tube inserted through a slit in its neck until its mouth healed.

The animal’s life hung by a thread.

Eventually, success followed the work of the veterinary surgeons and support staff at the wildlife department’s Elephant Transit Home (ETH) in Udawalawe, and the wounded elephant recovered and was released back into the wild.

It was among three of 13 elephants maimed with hakkapatas that have recovered after treatment at the transit home.

Scores of elephants, most of them young animals under the age of 10, are killed with these explosive devices disguised in fruit when they inquisitively nose them out among the litter on the jungle floor. The “jaw-bombs” have killed at least 425 elephants between 2010-18.

The veterinary procedures taken to save the tragically few elephants that survive have been recorded in a scientific paper presented by Dr. Vijitha Perera and his team of wildlife officials at the recent WildLanka symposium.

Scientists applauded the fact that symposium provided the opportunity for such valuable information to be shared and used elsewhere in the world instead of the vets’ heroic efforts being confined to the log books of the wildlife department and forgotten.

Success stories in print

WildLanka is the annual symposium of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), bringing together the country’s wildlife researchers and administrators. Its most recent session, on April 6-7, was held as an online forum.

A total of 62 research papers were presented, with four keynote speeches delivered by veterans of the subjects. The symposium is the crown jewel of the department’s scientific journal, WildLanka, launched in 2005.

“People just see the DWC as an agency whose job is just chasing elephants and doing trouble shooting managing wildlife human conflicts, but there are more technical things that we do behind the scenes in achieving conservation goals.

“Knowledge of these efforts were not being shared with the public and other experts, so we started the WildLanka journal to fill this gap,” the department’s Director of Operations, Ranjan Marasinghe, said.

“When the journal started in 2005, WildLanka was a biannual publication that received 50 papers, mainly from the scholars of universities that research wildlife. Now we are getting more papers, so we publish four issues annually,” Mr. Marasinghe said.

“In 2014, we started WildLanka Symposium to provide a platform for DWC officers and researchers to interact with experienced experts in wildlife locally and internationally.

WildLanka is a peer-reviewed journal with both Sri Lankan and international experts scrutinising the research papers submitted, chief editor Nilanthi Rajapakse said.

“It has been challenging to put on such symposiums during COVID-19 but the pandemic also had its silver lining. For example, we used to get down foreign experts, spending a lot of money for air tickets and accommodation, but COVID forced us to go online and we can now get more experts involved in the symposium, which provides us with more opportunities,” Ms. Rajapakse said.

Professor Devaka Weerakoon of the Department of Zoology of the University of Colombo said the journal and symposium provided a means to illuminate the significant high-level scientific knowledge possessed by wildlife staff.

She said it was especially beneficial to the field when papers saw collaboration between department experts and researchers at universities. Papers presented at the WildLanka symposium last month covered subjects ranging from a project on individual identification of the leopards of Yala, mangrove diversity at the Vankalei sanctuary, the population decline of sawfish, freshwater fish diversity in some parks, the grading system of bungalows in wildlife parks and many aspects of human-elephant conflict.

For more success stories of the Department of Wildlife Conservation go to http://journals.dwc.gov.lk/ to browse past issues of WildLanka online. Printed issues are available at the department for anyone to purchase.

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/210801/news/ring-around-the-sun-a-marvel-if-not-a-miracle-451156.html published on SundayTimes on 01.08.2021

Nobody knows who spotted it first but news of an iridescent ring around the sun spread faster than light on Thursday, prompting crowds to look up at the sky. There was, in fact, a large circle of light resembling a full rainbow around the sun against the backdrop of a clear sky.

The phenomenon was clearly visible in southern Sri Lanka, and it seems some people believed its sudden appearance in the sky to be a miracle linked to their religious or political beliefs.

Not so, said Professor Chandana Jayaratne, Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Colombo. It was not a miracle but a natural optical phenomenon called a “22-degree halo” caused by the refraction of the sun’s light by millions of hexagonal ice crystals in high-altitude clouds.

Because the radius of the circle around the sun or moon is approximately 22 degrees, this is scientifically termed a 22-degree halo, Prof. Jayaratne said.

The same conditions can cause “moon rings”’ often on full moon days but solar halos can be more colourful as the sun is brighter.

The halo’s inner rim was sharper than the outer, which looks more diffused, observers said, adding that the halo was reddish on the inside and bluer on the outer rim.

According to experts, this is not a rare phenomenon and is much more common than a rainbow but people generally missed it, not tending to look up into a sunny sky.

Lunar halos or moon rings on a full moon day were gorgeous to watch but people should be cautious if they want to observe a solar halo, the experts cautioned.

“Looking at the sun directly on sun can cause burns in the eyes resulting in permanently impaired vision,” Dr. Priyanga Iddawela, an eye surgeon at Matara Hospital, warned.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210912/news/rare-sighting-of-ocean-glider-454946.html Published on SundayTimes on 12.09.2021

A seafaring bird has been swept up into Sri Lanka amid the recent stormy weather accompanied by heavy showers. Naturalist and researcher Chandima Fernando who had observed photos he received on WhatsApp tentatively identified it as a white tern. Fernando contacted seabird expert Rex I. de Silva who confirmed the identity and it turns out it is the first white tern (gygis alba) seen in Sri Lanka. White terns are common in the Maldives islands, but this is the first sighting of a white tern in Sri Lanka.

First record of White Tern from Sri Lanka. Image courtesy of Chandima Fernando and Kasun – FOGSL

The bridled tern had taken refuge inside a building and was found by Thushara Kodithuwakku, while the red-bellied tropic bird was sighted in a paddy field in Minuwangoda by Heshan Fernando. 

The white tern is a small seabird which is also called ‘angel tern’ because of its spotless white plumage.  

“White terns are breeding and found around Maldives islands. So, this is a much anticipated bird for the checklist of Sri Lanka’s seabirds,” says Moditha Kodikara Arachchi, a seabird enthusiast in Sri Lanka.

This white tern was found on August 29 and at least two other seabirds caught up in the turbulent weather were seen in the suburbs of Colombo. This includes, a bridled tern found in Negombo also on Augus 29 and a red-bellied tropic bird found in Minuwangoda on August 31.

Ornithologists have found about 50 species of seabirds off the shores of Sri Lanka. They say that the best season for seabird-watching is during the south-west monsoon as the stormy weather would push them toward the shores.

Rex I de Silva, a pioneer in the study of seabirds in Sri Lanka, found the mass migration of several species through field observations decades ago. According to his research, a mass migration of the bridled tern happens in August-September.

Bird watcher Kodikara Arachchi said he observed this week about 1,300 bridled terns flying south during a three-hour watch. “It needs patience, but is rewarding when you can identify a bird and spot a rare bird,” Kodikara Arachchi said.

This is an article published in Vidusara Science Weekly on 06.10.2021. The article focuses on some of the changes that can be expected to observe in your home gardens. 

කාලගුණ යේ වෙනසක් නිසා පසු ගිය සති කිහිපයේ ලංකාවේ බොහෝ පළාත් වලට තද වැසි වැටුනේය. වැස්සේ සිතලයට ගුලි වී නිදන්නට ඇත්නම් අපි බොහෝ දෙනා කැමති වුවත්, වැස්ස වසින විට හා ඉන් පසුව පරිසරයේ සහ ගෙවත්ත ආශ්‍රිත ජිවින්ගේ සමහර සුවිශේෂී චර්යා නිරීක්ෂණය කිරීමට අපට හැකිවේ.

දිගු වියළි කාලයකට පසු වැටෙන පළමු වැස්ස ගෙන එන්නේ එයටම ආවේණික, ඇවිස්සුනු දුහුවිලි සමග මුසුවූ සුවදකි. එසේ දිගු වියළි කාලකට පසු වැටෙන වැස්සකට පසු පරිසරයේ ඇත්තේ අමුතුම ප්‍රබෝධයකි. එවන් වැස්සකට පසු උදෑසන, කුරුල්ලන් නැරඹීමට සුදුසුම දිනයකි.

වැස්සේ ජලස්නානය කරන කුරුල්ලෝ   

තදින් වැසි වැටෙන  දී  ඔබගේ ගෙවත්තේ කුරුල්ලන් කුමක් කරන්නේ දැයි ඔබ නිරීක්ෂණය කර තිබේද..? අප ගෙවත්ත ආශ්‍රිත ජීවීන් සමහරෙක් වැස්ස ට ප්‍රිය කරන අතර සමහරෙක් ට වැස්ස කරදරයකි. දිගට පවතින තද වැස්ස කුරුල්ලන්ට කරදරයක් වුවත්

වැස්ස පටන් ගත් අවස්තාවලදී බොහෝ කුරුල්ලන් ඒ වැස්සේ ස්නානය කරන්නට ප්‍රිය කරයි. හොඳින් නිරීක්ෂණය කළහොත්, තම පියාපත් විහිදමින් වැස්සේ හොඳින් නා ගන්නා කොන්ඩ කුරුල්ලෙකු, පොල්කිච්චේකු ඔබේ ගෙවත්ත අවටින් ද බොහෝ විට දැකගත හැකි වනු ඇත.

මීට අමතරව සුටික්කන්, බට්ටිච්චන් වැනි කුඩා කුරුල්ලන් ගේ විශේෂ ස්නාන චර්යාවක් ද වැස්සේ දී හෝ වැස්ස නිම වූ පසු ඔබට දැක ගත හැකි වේ. මොවුන් බොහෝ විට කරනුයේ ගස් වල පත්‍ර වල රැදුණු වැහි බිඳු ඇගේ තවරා ගෙන ඒවායින් කරන ස්නානයකි. වැස්ස නැති වුවත්, උදෑසන තද පින්නක් තිබු අවස්ථාවලදී රැදෙන ජල බිදු වලින් ද ස්නානය කිරීම මොවුන් ගේ විශේෂී පුරුද්දකි.

(සවස් වරුවේ ගස් වලට වතුර දමද්දී, අප ගෙවත්තේ තිබෙන කාමරංගා ගසේ උස් අතු වලට ජල පහර කිහිපයක් එල්ල කිරීම මගේ පුරුද්දකි. සවස 5ට පමණ මේ ක්‍රියාව කරන සමහර විටෙක, මා විසින් වතුර බටයෙන් ඉහලට එල්ල කරන ජලය එසැණින් ම ස්නානයට ද අපේ ගෙවත්තේ සුටික්කෝ පුරුදු වී සිටිති.)

වැස්සෙන් මුවා වීමට වහල යටටත් එන තෙත බරිත කුරුල්ලෝ

වැසි වැටෙන්නට පටන් ගෙන සුළු වෙලාවක් ගත වෙන තෙක් සුටික්කන් වැනි කුරුල්ලන් ඒ වතුර නෑමට ඉවතට ආවත්, බොහෝ කුරුල්ලන් නොතෙමෙන  තැනක වැස්සෙන් රැකවරණය ගෙන සිටීමට කැමැත්ත දක්වයි. කුරුල්ලන් ගේ පිහාටු වල ඔවුන් ගේ ග්‍රන්තියකින් වැහෙන තෛලමය තරලයක් නිතර හෝටයෙන් ගෙන පිරිමදින නිසා, පිහාටු වලට වතුර උරා ගැනීම අඩු වුවත්, වැස්සේදී ඔවුන්ට පියාඹිම අපහසුය. කුරුල්ලන් පියඹා යන්නේ ඔවුන් ගේ තටු මගින් සිදු කරන චලනයෙන් වාතය පහළට තෙරපිමකිනි. එහෙත් වැසි වසින විට බොහෝ විට පරිසරයේ තිබෙන්නේ අඩු පීඩන තත්ත්වයක් නිසා ඔවුන්ට පියෑබිමට වැඩි ආයාසයක් ගත යුතු වේ.

ඔබගේ ගෙදර වහල යට තිබෙන ඉඩක හෝ ගසක කොළ වලින් වැසුණු එතරම් තෙමෙන්නේ නැති තැනක නිසොල්මන්ව සිටින කුරුල්ලෙකු දෙන්නෙකු තදින් වැසි වැටෙන විට දී හොදින් බැලුවොත් නිරීක්ෂණය කල හැකි වනු ඇත. එහෙත් ඔවුන් ව නිරීක්ෂණය කිරීමට යාමේදී ඔවුන් කලබල නොකිරීමට වග බලා ගන්න.

වැස්සේ ගීතමය සංධ්වනි මවන ගෙම්බෝ සහ මැඩියෝ

තදින් වැසි වැටෙන විට වඩාත් ම සතුටු වන සතුන් කොටසකි උභය ජීවින්. වෙනදාට ගල් යට, මල් පෝච්චි අස්සේ සැගවී සිටින මේ ගෙම්බෝ සහ මැඩියෝ තද වැස්සකදී එළි බහී. වතුර වලවල් සෑදෙන තරම් තද වැස්සක් පතිත වූ දාට නම් මොවුන්ට රජ මගුල්  ය. එවන් දින වල රාත්‍රිය නොයෙකුන් තනු වලට සහ තිව්‍ර තාවයෙන් යුතු හැඩින් ගීතවත් කිරීමට මේ ගෙම්බන් සහ මැඩියන් වග බලාගන්නේ මේ වතුර වල හිදී යෑමට පෙර සහකරියෙකු සොයා එහි බිත්තර දැමිය යුතු හෙයිනි. මීට දශක කිහිපයකට පෙර සෑම ප්‍රදේශයකම පාහේ මෙවන් වැසි බර රාත්රියයන් ගෙම්බන්ගේ සහ මැඩියන් ගේ හඩින් ගීතවත් වුවත්, දැන් නම් බොහෝ ප්‍රදේශවලින් ඒ ‘ගෙඹි ගීතිකා’ මතකයට පමණක් සිමා වී තිබේ.

මීට දශක කිහිපයකට පෙර නම්, තද වැස්සකදී ගෙවතු වල කොන් වල හෝ අසල ඇති පහත් ඉඩම් වල වැසි ජලය පිරී තිබීම සුලභ විය. දින කිහිපයකට පසු මේ ජලයේ පාවෙන ගෙම්බන් විසින් දැමූ බිත්තර සෙවෙල ලෙස දක්නට ලැබුන අතර, තවත් දින කිහිපයකින් ඒවායින් කුඩා ඉස්ගෙඩියන් එළියට පැමිණේ. දින කිහිපයකින් බොහෝ දිය රැදුණු වලවල් සිඳී යද්දී, මේ ඉස්ගෙඩියන් අල්ලා ගැනීමට කොකුන්, පිළිහුඩුවන් වැනි කුරුල්ලන් කුරුමානම් අල්ලන්නට පටන් ගනී. වතුර වලවල් කිහිපයක් ඉතිරි වන අතර, මේවායෙන් ගෙම්බන්ගේ ඉදිරි පරම්පරාව බිහි වේ.

වැස්සේ පියඹා එන මේරු

වේයන් කොළනියක් පරිණත වෙද්දී, එහි වේයන් ට පියාපත් එන අතර වාතයේ ආර්ද්‍රතාවයට සංවේදී වෙන මේ තටු සහිත වේයන් බොහෝ විට වැස්සකට පසු පොළොවෙන් මතුවේ. මොවුන්ට දිගු දුරක් පියඹා යෑමට නොහැකි අතර, මුල් කොළණිහි සිට මීටර 100 ක් පමණ දුරකට පමණක් පැතිරිය හැකිය. තටු ගැලවුණු පසු තව තැනක දී නව කොලණියක් බිහි කිරීමට මේ වේයන් උත්සාහ කරත්, බොහෝ දෙන විලෝපිකයන් ගේ ලෙහෙසි ආහාරයක් බවට පත්වන නිසා එම කාර්යය කිරීමට ඉතිරි වනුයේ කිහිප දෙනෙකු පමණි.

වැස්සකට පසු පිපෙන වැළි හතු

මීට දශක ගණනාවකට පෙර අපේ ගෙවතු ප්‍රමාණයෙන් විශාල විය. තද වැස්සකට පසු දින උදයේ ගෙවත්තේ පහල, දිරා යන ගස් කදන් වල සහ බිම වැස්සකට පසු කුඩා බිම් මල් රාශිකයක් ඉස්මතු වී තිබෙනු ඔබගේ අම්මලා තාත්තලාට නම් තවමත් මතක ඇති. සමහර බිම්මල් ආහාරයට නොසුදුසු වුවත්, ‘වැලි හතු’ නමින් හඳුන්වන මේ කුඩා බිම්මල් නම් එදා ඉතා රසවත් ආහාරයක් විය. මේ ආහාරයට ගත හැකි වැලි හතු මෙන් ම, වැසි කාලයේ දී වෙනදාට වඩා ඔබගේ ගෙවත්තේ ද බිම් මල් පොළොවෙන් ඉහලට විත් තිබීමට ඉඩ තිබේ. තෙත රැදෙන ස්ථාන වල විශේෂයෙන් ම මෙවැනි බිම් මල් දැක ගත හැකි වේ.

වැස්සේදී එළි බසින ගෝනුස්සෝ සහ පත්තෑයෝ

පොළොවේ ඇති ගුල් වල සැඟවී සිටින බොහෝ සතුන් වැස්සත් සමග තම වාසස්ථාන ජලයෙන් යට වන නිසා වැසි දිනවල දී අවතැන් වේ. එසේ තම සැඟවුණු ස්ථාන වලින් එළි බහින ගෝනුස්සන් සහ පත්තෑයන් ගෙන් වැසි දිනවලදී විශේෂයෙන් ප්‍රවේසම් වීමට අපට සිදු වේ.

මීලග වැස්ස දිනයේ දී සහ වැස්සකට පසු, ඔබත් ගෙවත්ත නිරීක්ෂණය කර බලන්න; සමහර විට වෙන දිනයකට වඩා විශේෂිත මෙවන් දේ ඔබට දැකගත හැකි වනු ඇත. 

A common bird found in coastal Sri Lanka during the early part of the year has for the first time been tracked on its heroic flight high above the Himalayan mountains after being fitted with an electronic tag by researchers in Mannar.

“The tagged brown-headed gull crossed the Himalaya range flying at an altitude of 18,153 feet (5,533m). It had to fly even higher on its last stretches of the flight over the Tibetan Plateau, reaching heights of 21,140ft (6,443m)” researcher Dr. Sampath Seneviratne said.

The brown-headed gull (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus) was caught and tagged in April by Dr. Seneviratne’s team in Mannar. The electronic tag emits signals giving the bird’s location wherever it flies. The signals are picked up by satellite. The gull left Sri Lanka a few days after being tagged and continued to fly northward toward its breeding ground. It could be a journey this brown-headed gull had already made a few times previously but, on this occasion, it left an electronic trail revealing its heroic flight.

According to the data, the gull crossed the Himalayan range, flying between the mountains of Manaslu (8,163m) and Nemjung (7,140m), in the first week of May and settled on the Tibetan plateau to breed. Himalaya, with its tall mountain ranges, Everest the highest at 8,849m, is known as the roof of the world. Gusty winds, subzero temperatures and low oxygen levels make survival a challenge there, which makes the journey of the brown-headed gull so marvellous.

Ornithologists have found through visual observation that bar-headed geese fly across Himalaya. More recently, the demoiselle crane and steppe eagle have also been recorded there. The record of the brown-headed gull is only the third confirmed by tagging, Dr. Seneviratne said.

The satellite tagging project is a joint collaboration between the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) based at the University of Colombo, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Wetlands International, with support from local sponsors with Palmyrah House in Mannar become the main contributor. CAS provides the satellite tags and associated technology to FOGSL, which selected Mannar as the project site as it is a hotspot for migratory birds coming to Sri Lanka.

Traditionally, bird rings are used to monitor bird movements. A plastic or metal ring with a unique coding that helps to identify the place of the bird’s origin is put on a bird’s leg. When the bird wearing this ring is found in a different location it confirms the bird has travelled from one of these locations to the other.

“But these traditional rings do not reveal the movements of the bird in between, so the satellite tags and other electronic tags revolutionised migratory studies,” Professor Sarath Kotagama said. Prof. Kotagama started the National Bird-Ringing Programme in 2004 through FOGSL in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

As the technology behind electronic tags is expensive, Dr. Seneviratne spent years pursuing a partner to initiate a satellite-tagging programme. Finally, the Chinese Academy of Sciences partnered with FOGSL to provide the technology and the satellite tags to begin the project last year in Mannar. These tags use a GPS/GSM transmitter to send information about the location of the bird, its speed, and the height of its flight. The data is received and distributed through servers using the earth’s mobile networks.

Gayomini Panagoda, a Ph.D. candidate of the University of Colombo, who is using the tagging project as her thesis, says there is careful selection of the bird species to be tagged. The team received 35 tags last year. The birds selected included the Eurasian wigeon, common redshank, whimbrel, crab plover, bar-tailed godwit, black-tailed godwit and the Caspian tern).

One bird that was tagged, the Heuglin’s gull, is regarded as special by the team. “It breeds on the rim of the Arctic in northern Siberia in Russia, so we wanted to tag this bird to study its migratory routes,” Ms Panagoda said. “The Heuglin’s gull flew about 8,000km in 35 days to reach its breeding grounds and is now on its return journey back toward Sri Lanka for this migratory season.”

The Central Asian Flyway (CAF) is a route for migratory birds coming from areas between the Arctic and Indian oceans, and Sri Lanka is the last landmass on the southern boundaries of this flyway. “The boundaries of the CAF are only broadly defined and poorly understood, so we aim for species that represent … the species that visit us from both the high Arctic and temperate latitudes to capture the full spectrum of migration systems within the flyway” Prof. Seneviratne said. Ms. Panagoda said the team received a second batch of 35 tags for this season of migrants, and have already begun work.

Saturday marked migration season in south The second of the World Migratory Bird Days (WMBD) yesterday, marked the arrival in countries such as Sri Lanka of birds from northern climes to “winter” in warm countries.The second Saturday in May marks the other bird day, when migratory birds fly to northern regions of the world.The theme for yesterday’s event was “Sing, fly, soar – like a bird!”, focusing on the phenomena of birdsong” and bird flight as a way to inspire and connect people around the globe in a desire to protect migratory birds.Climate change is adding pressure on migratory birds by adversely affecting the habitats they need for breeding, resting and refuelling along the way.Mid-October is when common migratory birds such as the Indian pitta (known as avichchiya in Sinhala) come to Sri Lanka. As it is a bulky bird, many become exhausted and ended up disoriented in many home gardens.The Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) is holding a lecture on October 16 to educate people on what to do if an exhausted migrant is found in home gardens. Email migrantwatch.srilanka@gmail.com to register for the lecture.

Published on SundayTimes on 17.10.2021 http://www.sundaytimes.lk/211017/news/blowing-in-the-wind-silky-threads-of-flying-spiders-cause-wonder-458789.html

Earlier this month, people in areas such as Hambantota and Ampara reported seeing pale string-like substances floating in the air when they happened to gaze upwards in the morning. It took no time for conspiracy theories to emerge, one being that Stealth aircraft use such string-like mechanisms to evade radar and were overflying Sri Lanka. The media even contacted the Air Force for clarification and were told there were no links to any aerospace activity.

“There is no reason for panic over everything that falls from the sky,” Professor Chandana Jayaratne, Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Colombo, said, adding, “and in this case, it is not a mystery but a common natural phenomenon.

“What people saw were the strings made by spiders that emit silky strings to travel to different areas, using the wind,” Prof. Jayaratne said. This phenomenon would be happening at other times as well, but a chance observation this month spread the news and created widespread interest.

Dr. Ranil Nanayakkara, an expert on spiders of Sri Lanka, said “ballooning” was a technique used by many spiders to disperse to new territories to raise colonies. Also known as “kiting”, this method is especially used by young spiders (spiderlings). “Usually, a spider lays hundreds of eggs, so there can be a sudden population expansion, causing a stiff competition for food in the area. So, a spiderling climbs to a height, with clear space around, lifts its abdomen and shoots several silky threads into the air.

“This silk is thicker than that used by spiders to make webs, and the threads act like a parachute, carrying the spider by wind to a different territory,” Dr. Nanayakkara said.

Airborne travel is easier, faster and less risky than covering the same distance on land. Adults of certain lightweight spider species too use ballooning but it is mostly the spiderlings of the family, Linyphiidae, that use this technique all over the world, according to Dr. Nanayakkara.

Spiderlings time their shooting of the thread to catch a gust of wind, and they often land a few metres away. But spiders have been found high in the air on weather balloons or even floating in oceans after being caught in strong upward draughts, he added.

Research in 2018 found that spiders also use the earth’s electric fields to time their shooting of the thread to “fly” more easily, in circumstances such as when breezes are not strong enough to carry them.

From glands called spinnerets, located at the tip of their abdomen, spiders produce threads for various purposes: sticky threads for trapping prey, fine silk for tying up prey, or a safety line, the kind used in ballooning. According to research, most spiders have three pairs of spinnerets, each having its own function.  

Spiders do not have a specific breeding period but there can be seasons such as a period soon after a dry period when there is a boom of egg-laying that later results in heightened ballooning activities.

Their threads are sometimes called “angel hair”, in Australia, for instance, wherein 2012 and 2015, millions of spiders were reported to have ballooned, making the ground where they landed seem snow-covered with their silk.

Sri Lanka has 556 species of spiders, making it one of the largest animal groups in the country, with many more species awaiting proper reporting in scientific publications. Along with spiders, some caterpillars also use threads to travel on breezes. The phenomenon has been known since the time of Aristotle, around 350BC.

• The latest edition of Sri Lanka’s red list of native plants shows that nearly half of the assessed species are threatened with extinction, a higher number than in the previous edition from 2012.
• There was some good news, however, with three of the five plants assessed as extinct in 2012 being rediscovered under serendipitous circumstances.
• The number of critically endangered plants considered possibly extinct because they haven’t been seen in a century has gone down to 128 from 170, thanks in large part to sleuthing by amateur botanists and social media.
• Much of the work compiling the red list was done by a group of young field botanists, who are riding a wave of enthusiasm among citizen scientists keen to study plants.

https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/follow-the-butterfly-rediscovery-of-extinct-plants-highlights-sri-lankas-new-red-list/ Published on Mongabay 12.10.2021

COLOMBO — Himesh Dilruwan Jayasinghe was on a butterfly chase in Sri Lanka’s Knuckles Mountains, in the Indian Ocean island’s central highlands. He’d tracked down a rare butterfly known as the small leopard, named after the markings on its wings, and was moving in for a closer look at the eggs it had laid in a host plant.

Suddenly he found himself transfixed. Not by the butterfly, or its eggs, but by the plant itself.

Here was a Rinorea decora plant, not seen since 1888, and categorized as extinct on Sri Lanka’s last red list of threatened plants, updated in 2012.

Jayasinghe’s discovery is one of many serendipitous revelations documented in the newly updated red list. (Though called the National Red List 2020, it was published this year.)

The new red list revives three of the five plants declared extinct in the 2012 edition. Along with R. decora, they include R. bengalensis and Crudia zeylanica, all rediscovered by Jayasinghe himself. He found the latter two plants outside protected areas while conducting environmental impact assessments prior to the construction of roads.

Rediscovering extinct plants

Plant conservation isn’t nearly as glamorous a field as conservation of wild animals. But for a change, the C. zeylanica rediscovery grabbed headlines in Sri Lankan media. Jayasinghe had identified a C. zeylanica tree in the Daraluwa area of western Sri Lanka in 2019, sitting along the designated path of a planned expressway. He went on to discover more C. zeylanica trees growing not far from that original one. The 2020 red list now categorizes C. zeylanica as critically endangered.

Jayasinghe found the third “extinct” plant, Rinorea bengalensis, under similar circumstances: while carrying out a survey for the planned construction of another expressway. The plant was growing near a stream in Ratnapura district in southwest Sri Lanka.

“The discovery of Crudia zeylanica and Rinorea bengalensis from populated areas not too far away from congested towns show that most botanical field surveys are restricted to protected areas. We end up missing out on some important plants that are scattered around and survive in disturbed habitats,” Jayasinghe told Mongabay.

The 2012 red list also labeled 170 critically endangered plants as being “possibly extinct” because they hadn’t been seen in nearly a century. The new list whittles this number down to 128, thanks to a slew of new sightings in the past eight years.

“It is encouraging to find so many plant enthusiasts, and their presence helps make important rediscoveries,” said Bathiya Gopallawa, a field botanist at the National Herbarium Department of the National Botanical Gardens.

Gopallawa is a field researcher who uses social media to guides others to identify plants. The availability of reference books and instant communication via social media platforms can ensure timely expert assistance to amateur botanists in identifying plants and encouraging new enthusiasts, Gopallawa said.

“The rediscovery of Shorea ovalifolia, last seen in 1911 and considered ‘extinct in the wild,’ is an example of the importance of filed surveys everywhere,” Gopallawa told Mongabay.

Known as pini beraliya in the Sinhala language, the rediscovery of the plant generated ripples on social media. Plant enthusiast Lasitha Prageeth commented in an online group that a plant bearing such a name occurred in his village. Working together, the experts and amateurs got another “possibly extinct” species restored in status.

A number of additional C. zeylanica plants have also been found thanks to the collaboration made possible by social media, Gopallawa said. Other species, either considered extinct or having only one or two official records, such as Strobilanthes gardneriana, Wrightia puberula, Exacum pedunculatum, Henckelia wijesundarae, were also found thanks to tips offered by plant enthusiasts using social media, Gopallawa said.

Enthusiastic young botanists

“Much of the National Red List work is done by a group of young field botanists, and this augurs well for the country,” said Siril Wijesundara, who headed the expert committee behind the updated red list.

Wijesundara, a former director of the Department of the Botanical Gardens, said it’s also good to see communication tools being used to raise interest in plant studies among the average citizen.

But despite the rediscoveries and fresh sightings, the new red list indicates that threats to Sri Lanka’s plant life have gotten worse overall in the past eight years, Wijesundara told Mongabay.

Of the 3,087 known flowering plants, or angiosperms, native to Sri Lanka, the 2020 red list assessed that 1,496, or nearly half, were threatened. A greater proportion of ferns, 207 out of 350 assessed, were considered threatened.

“This makes 48.4% of flowering plants and 59.1% of ferns threatened,” Wijesundara said. “According to the 2012 assessment, only 44% of flowering plants were threatened. So this is an increase of extinction risk and an alarming situation.”

See related: Biologists warn ‘extinction denial’ is the latest anti-science conspiracy theory

The red list, he added, isn’t just an inventory of plant species and their status, but a powerful tool to inform conservation action and policy change. As such, it should be considered a health report for Sri Lanka’s flora, and, as with the results of a medical checkup, must be prescribed a solution that fits the conservation assessment, Wijesundara added.

While the list focused on flowering plants, ferns, and gymnosperms (seed-producing plants), the publication includes vital checklists for mosses, lichens, algae and cyanobacteria, making it the most updated reference yet on the flora of Sri Lanka.

While the first international red list for plants was published in 1964 by the IUCN, the global conservation authority. Sri Lanka published its first National Red List in 1999, assessing 809 plant species. The 2007 red list evaluated 1,099 plants, while the 2012 edition assessed 3,100 flowering plants.

The National Red List was initially processed by the IUCN’s Sri Lanka country office, which this year handed the task over to the Biodiversity Secretariat of the Department of Environment.

Banner image of the critically endangered Thismia gardneriana, a plant that doesn’t create chlorophylls but instead survives on a symbiotic relationship with a type of fungi emerging from the forest floor. Image courtesy of Bhathiya Gopallawa.

A new coffee table book on Sri Lanka’s wild cats– Phantoms of the Night, hopes to trigger public attention on these rarely spotted animals. Published on SundayTimes on 05.12.2021 https://www.sundaytimes.lk/211205/plus/lest-we-forget-these-out-of-sight-creatures-463894.html

The Jungle cat:Listed as ‘near threatened’

In spite of the callous disregard for fellow animals and all the negligence and selfishness, we have not yet managed to stifle the extraordinary tenacity of nature and its overpowering drive to survive at any cost. Most people rarely think about it, but among the fragments of the landscape there are awe-inspiring creatures we never dreamed of, living alongside us”.

This is a quote from the preface of ‘Phantoms of the Night’, a coffee table book on the wild cats of Sri Lanka which will be launched on December 17. Stealthy, moving swiftly, attacking lethally, and disappearing under the curtain of darkness at the slightest disturbance, these wild cats are fittingly called phantoms.

‘Phantom of the Night’ is a collective effort by Thilak Jayaratne, Janaka Gallangoda, Nadika Hapuarachchi, and Madura de Silva. The team has previously published coffee table books on Primates of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Freshwater Fish, and Mannar Unbound. Madura says there was greater attention to primates, freshwater fish, and habitats of Mannar because of their books which encouraged them to select Sri Lanka’s wild cats for their latest work.

“Out of sight also means out of mind, so we think the book will trigger public attention to these forgotten creatures, that will ultimately contribute to the conservation of Sri Lanka’s wild cats,” he adds.

The fishing cat: Well adapted to living in urban settings

Sri Lanka is home to four species of wild cats: the leopard, fishing cat, jungle cat, and rusty-spotted cat. The leopard is the elite member of this family overshadowing the other wild cats. But some of the wild cats even survive on edges of congested cities and rural villages, so we want this book to mainly raise awareness about Sri Lanka’s other wild cats, says Madura, who is President of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle (WCSG). The society’s research on wild cats is included in the book, but presented in a simple format with the story being told through photographs, Madura says.

The Rusty-spotted cat is the world’s smallest cat, and the Fishing cat is a wetland specialist. According to the National Red List of threatened fauna, the Jungle cat is Near Threatened and all other wild cats are listed as Endangered.

The leopard is also generally active at night, but Sri Lanka is known as a country for leopard sightings during daytime in many of our national parks – particularly Yala and Wilpattu where they are habituated to human presence.

It is very difficult to observe these wild cats during a daytime excursion and thus it had been a challenge to photograph them, Nadika Hapuarachchi, one of the photographers of the book told the Sunday Times. “The rusty-spotted cat is the first to come out and get active around 7.30 at night, but it is only around 11 or midnight that we had most of our fishing cat encounters, though contrarily, we had many sightings of the jungle cat even during the daytime,” he added.

The world’s smallest cat: It looks cute but the rusty spotted cat can be quite fierce

Lighting was the other challenge these photographers faced. “When we encounter a wild cat on jungle roads while travelling in vehicles, we mostly used the headlights of the vehicle to take the photos through the car window. There are some wild cats that visit the same spots regularly, so we set up lights without disturbing the animal and wait in a hide until it comes closer,” Nadika explained. For research purposes, WCSG set up camera traps and the book contains several photos picked up by the camera traps.

The authors dedicate “Phantoms of the Night” to the wild cat conservationists who work to safeguard the future of wild cats.

‘Phantoms of the Night’ will be launched with an exhibition at the Lionel Wendt Art Centre on December 18 and 19. The book is published by Chaya Publishers and has a pre-publication offer of Rs. 5000. To order please contact the publishers through email Srilankanwildcats@gmail.com or by phone 0777393161.

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/211205/news/satellite-tracked-gull-reveals-migratory-secrets-464385.html Published on SundayTimes 05.12.2021

A migratory gull’s return to Sri Lanka from northern Russia has been charted in a milestone joint project in which researchers used a global positioning system transponder fixed to the bird.

The team tracked a Heuglin’s Gull which flew to the edge of the Arctic in northern Russia from Mannar. It was tagged on April 4 this year, but had flown from Sri Lanka after 20 days. The gull they named ‘Menike’, had flown a total of 19,360 kilometres.

It flew 7,880km over 35 days to reach its breeding grounds in Yamal Peninsula in northern Russia in the Arctic region and began the return journey in late August. The bird made several stopovers over 91 days and arrived in Mannar on November 4 — six months and nine days after leaving Sri Lanka.

“With her safe arrival, ‘Menike’ becomes our first tagged bird to complete a full migration cycle and also the first known bird to travel to the European arctic from Sri Lanka,” says Prof. Sampath Senevirathne and Gayomini Panagoda, who led the team.

This study is a joint project by the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) of the University of Colombo and the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Mannar was chosen because this is where many migratory birds first enter Sri Lanka.

The team had received 35 GPS tags which they also fixed on other migratory birds.

The Heuglin’s Gull is a large white-headed bird found only in the north-western and northern coastal regions of Sri Lanka during the migratory season. It is a member of Lesser Back-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) complex, which consists of five similar looking gulls.

Prof Seneviratne said the migration and breeding destinations of the Larus fuscus Gulls spending winter in South Asia are not well-understood, “so we specially want to tag a bird also with intention to study the boundaries of the ‘Central Asia Flyway’, where birds used to migrate to Sri Lanka’’.

The team tags the Heuglin’s Gull in Mannar on April 4 this year. The bird flew away 20 days later and returned in November.

“Though it reached its breeding grounds early, ‘Megha’ was a bit late to initiate his southward journey, leaving the Arctic only in early October. ‘Megha’ is now close to Sri Lanka, and we expect it to reach us in a few days,” Ms Panagoda told the Sunday Times.

A Brown-headed Gull they tagged had crossed the Himalayas in May this year. It was only the third bird to have crossed this extreme height.

The FOGSL together with the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) initiated Sri Lanka’s National Bird Ringing Programme centered in Bundala in 2004 under the guidance of Prof. Sarath Kotagama.

“GPS-tracking helps to understand the pathways of the birds and can lead to solving many mysteries of bird migration,” says Prof. Kotagama.

Prof. Seneviratne says the Wetland International, DWC and Sri Lanka Navy and the local sponsors Palmyrah House and the Vayu Resort in Mannar too should get credit for the project.

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/211219/news/for-christmas-a-star-of-wondrous-beauty-bright-466209.html published on SundayTimes on 19.12.2021

According to the legends, a comet appeared in the sky on Jesus Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. Setting the right tone for this Christmas season, a comet appears on the night sky these days, where you may also barely be able to observe it through the naked eye as a dot.

This comet was discovered by astronomer G. J. Leonard in January this year; hence it was named Leonard’s comet. Comet Leonard made its closest approach to Earth last Sunday, 12th of December, getting more prominently visible at the horizon at sunset closer to the planet Venus or the evening star. Today – on the 19th of December; the comet would appear closer to Venus.

The comet Leonard is a fast-moving object in space estimated to be traveling 71 km(44miles) per second. According to the astronomers, the comet will pass the sun on the 3rd of January next year, eject itself from our solar system after that. It is better to use a telescope to observe this comet, says Prof. Chandana Jayaratne, from the Department of Physics, University of Colombo.
Visit Sri Lanka Science Channel for more information https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZoJpB5fsKU

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/211219/news/humpback-family-revives-mirissa-tourism-hopes-466061.html This article was published on SundayTimes on 19.12.2021

A family of humpback whales are rarely seen in Sri Lankan waters, but a sighting in Mirissa may be a good omen for the whale-watching industry this festive season.

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are known as ‘songsters of the ocean’ for the sounds they make. They live as a pod and a pair of adults was first seen in Mirissa waters on Sunday December 12. They were seen throughout the week at different locations and a mother with a calf has also been seen.

“This is only the second good sighting of humpback whales in Mirissa waters since the industry started in 2008 as far as I know,” says Ganidu Rochana, an experienced whale-watching operator in Mirissa. They were seen about two nautical miles offshore.

A humpback can grow up to 18 metres (60 ft) and can weigh around 40 tons. It got its name from the large hump that forms when they arch their backs before making a deep dive into the ocean. They have long pectoral fins that resemble a pair of long arms to give them a distinctive look.

Humpback whales are acrobats which often breach. According to publications such as National Geographic, they also are famous for their ‘songs’, which are a complex sequence of moans, howls, and cries. Mainly the male sings and these ‘songs’ can sometimes continue for hours creating an underwater symphony, researchers have found. These songs are distinct for each humpback population and can be heard as far as 30km (20 miles) away, according to researchers.

“During our studies, we could pick the ‘songs’ of the humpback whale many times, even though  sightings are rare,’’ says Dr. Ranil Nanayakkara, a researcher who uses underwater microphones to study whale communications. “In fact, even a study in 1983 by a whale research vessel called the Tulip supported by the World Wildlife Fund recorded humpback whale ‘songs’, so their presence in our water is well established.’’

The humpback whale is a migratory marine mammal and the ones seen this week off Mirissa could belong to populations inhabiting the Arabian sea, Dr. Nanayakkara said. Another population of humpback whales that inhabit the Arctic is known to visit the waters in this region in June and July, so photographs are shared with experts who study them for further identification, said Dr. Nanayakkara.

Humpback whales had been hunted to the brink of extinction where 90% of the population got wiped out by the time they got protection in1966, researchers say. Populations have recovered.

The sea off Mirissa has become Sri Lanka’s prime whale-watching spot mainly due to its residential population of blue whales – the largest creature of the world. The industry began around 2008, but due to the coronavirus disease pandemic, operators did not have work in the past season. As tourists start arriving, tours are slowly picking up in Mirissa.

Last month, a group of operators complained that sightings have been few, but experts say that this is linked to the high freshwater influx into the ocean due to the high rainfall that pushed the food sources of whales further in the ocean. Such effects are temporary and the whales are now back in their regular grounds, they say.

Following is sinhala version of this article published on 26.12.2021 Aruna newspaper.

File pic of crowds thronging Sri Pada

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/220116/news/if-you-are-climbing-sri-pada-be-kind-to-nature-urge-environmentalists-469211.html published on 16.01.2022

As this long weekend draws large crowds to Adams Peak, environmentalists have renewed their plea to pilgrims not to pollute its pristine environment. “Despite continuous reminders, visitors still discard non-biodegradable items such as plastic bottles, polythene wrappers and lunch sheets,” said Prabash Karunathilake, the ranger at the Department of Wildlife Conservation’s (DWC) Nallathanniya office.

The DWC together with the Divisional Secretary employ workers to collect garbage discarded by pilgrims. Volunteers also give a helping hand. But long weekends attract large crowds and with it comes more garbage.

“The best solution is to reduce polythene and plastic items that visitors bring to the site,” says Mr. Karunathilake.

The route that starts from Nallathanniya, close to Hatton, is the shortest route to Sri Pada and it attracts the biggest crowd and with it the worst pollution.

Environmentalists also stressed the importance of protecting the Peak Wilderness sanctuary that was declared a Natural World Heritage by UNESCO in 2010. The Peak Wilderness rich in biodiversity said Mendis Wickramasinghe who discovered 8 new frog species in this natural haven in 2013.

The area is rich in biodiversity. Pix by Bhathiya Gopallawa

He said more research had to be done adding that there could be many creatures yet undiscovered and new to science and they needed to be protected.

He said freshwater fish, amphibians and freshwater crabs are the most threatened when the waterways get polluuted. Mr.Wickramasinghe recalled one long weekend where crowds to
Sri Pada had bathed in the water bodies applying shampoo, which had killed a population of tadpoles downstream.

A new nelu plant discovered recently near Madahinna of Sripada. Pix by Nilanthi Rajapaksha

Visitors to Sr Pada should enjoy the beauty of nature around them as there are a number of bird species that can be spotted on the trail itself. The yellow-eared bulbul is one such bird that can be spotted.

A visitor could also observe the different forest types, unique plants and flowers found in this area, pointed out environmentalists stressing the importance of not polluting the area.

https://www.sundaytimes.lk/220123/news/long-legged-gregarious-pink-birds-colour-the-landscape-469705.html Published on SundayTimes on 23.01.2022. Pix by Mevan Piyasena

A flamingo colony of about 5,000 has become an attraction in Mannar these days.

Mannar’s arid landscape sometimes is an eyesore, but many of its coastal areas and lagoons have come alive with shades of pink and white from a flock of flamingos. During the long weekend last week, last-minute travelers could not find accommodation as bird enthusiasts flocked to Mannar.

Mannar causeway, Vankalai Sanctuary, saltern, and the coastal area near the airstrip, are some of the spots where the birds can be seen. The colony sometimes visits areas nearer the main road and busloads of people stop by.

“Usually, the average number of a large flamingo flock consists of about 2,000, but the flamingo colony in Mannar these days has about 5,000, and this is the largest flock I’ve seen in Sri Lanka,” said Prof. Sampath Senevirathne, an ornithologist of the University of Colombo. He visits Mannar for fieldwork.

The flamingos are a migratory species that usually arrives in November and stays in Sri Lanka until about March. Prof. Seneviratne says this flock arrived in Mannar in the first week of January and could be the birds that breed in India’s Gujarat region.

In the past two years, the birds have been missing from Mannar. In 2019, a large number of flamingos together with many other migratory birds were found dead in India following a storm.

“About 70% of the birds in the Mannar’s flamingo flock consist of sub-adult birds that are pale in color, so this could be the same flock with its members that are growing after successful breeding during the past two years,” Prof Seneviratne told the SundayTimes.

The Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is probably the most notable migratory bird species due to its beauty. According to National Geographic, this tall bird has long, lean, curved necks and pinkish legs. The flamingo’s pink beak has a black tip, and the bird uses its downward bent bill to filter-feed tiny organisms like plankton, tiny fish, and larvae in mudflats or shallow waters. Shrimp-like crustaceans provide the nutrition that helps to maintain the pink in their body, National Geographic says.

In Sri Lanka, the lagoons, mudflats, and shallow coastal waters in Jaffna and Mannar are the most popular locations for the flamingos. Until late ’90s, large flocks could be seen in Bundala Wetland in the south, but no longer.

“The reason for Bundala losing its flamingos is a result of the diversion of a large amount of irrigated freshwater to the Bundala Lagoon,” says Prof. Sarath Kotagama, an eminent ornithologist.

The flamingo filter feeds tiny organisms, but they need brackish water. When there is a lot of freshwater, the salinity of the Bundala lagoon changes, killing the organisms that the flamingo feed on. So the flamingos left Bundala looking for new feeding grounds, he said. “If the irrigated freshwater could be diverted elsewhere, the flamingos could start visiting the Bundala Lagoon again,” he said.