Ridiyagama safari park

As a country that has been internationally recognised, Sri Lanka is a must-visit destination for tourists. Its climate, sea beaches, magnificent waterfalls and other beauty of nature proves its uniqueness. Making use of these treasures, Sri Lanka recently opened its first safari park to give a new experience for all nature lovers.

One of the most important places to visit in a trip to Katharagama. Though it is still under construction you can have a feeling of going in a safari in Sri Lanka. It is exciting to see world largest lions in their natural habitats.

Situated in Ridiyagama, a town of Sooriyawewa in the Hambantota district, this park is a 500 acre of land which is managed under the supervision of the Department of National Zoological Gardens.

Environment in this safari park provides a perfect natural setting to the animals, with a lot of trees and shrubs. It gives the impression that the whole area is an open jungle unless one spot the perimeter protective walls.

Currently there are three zones in operation, which include the Lion zone, World Herbivore zone and the Asian elephant zone. The animals move around freely in their respective zones and are protected by automated gate systems to minimize the risk to humans.

At the moment there is only one lion and two lionesses in this 35 acre of land. But additionally they have 5 more lions that will be eventually added to the zone after the existing ones mark their territories. 

The World Herbivore zone comprise of different animals including zebra, African buffaloes, ostrich, camel, hippos, donkeys, different types of deer and Arabian oryx. In addition to that many other species endemic to Sri Lanka including monkeys, wild boar, spotted deer and palm civets can be found. During the season, one can also find around 55 different species of butterflies and 100 odd species of birds. 

Spanning 54 acres this zone is still being developed. At present only three elephants can be found but in time to come the zone will have around 10 of them. 

All zones are preserved as natural habitats that these animals can survive in. However for security reasons, there are 16 feet tall gates surrounding the park in addition to an 8KW electric fence. Remote control gates operate between each zone.  Since it is an open air zoo, the management has taken all necessary steps to ensure the safety of the visitors.

 Hence, there are certain rules and regulations which the visitors should strictly follow as listed below: 

· Visitors cannot tour around the park in their own private vehicles

· A bus service operates every half an hour and visitors are expected to stay at the platform 

· Visitors shouldn’t get down from the bus at any point until the ride is over 

· Photographs can be taken 

· Visitors should always keep the environment clean.

Later the World Herbivore zone will be divided in to African, Asian and Sri Lankan zones. In addition to that an Australian herbivore zone, a Bengali tiger zone, a leopard and a sloth bear too are yet to be opened in the near future. 

The animal kingdom consists of different species and at a Safari park, one would just not want to see all animals in a zoo, therefore the management has also taken steps to introduce a small animal kingdom and a reptile zone as well.