Golden jackal or as sometimes Sri Lankan population is known as Black-backed Jackal (C.a. lanka is no longer considered as a sub species but synonym of the C.a. naria also occurs in the South India.) is a mammal inhabiting grasslands, scrubs, marshy areas and such habitats throughout the island, while becoming rare in the higher hills and much common in the dry lowlands. Though usually they are encountered as pairs Golden jackal often hunts in small packs. It is an omnivorous animal and eat anything that it can kill such as birds, lizards, small mammals, beetles etc. Golden jackal is also a scavenger of dead animals and eat fruits and berries too. In forested areas with less human presence it can be seen any time of day or night. But it become a nocturnal animal when wandering close to human habitations.
හඳුන් දිවියා යනු හොඳින් වැඩුන පිරිමි සතෙකු හීලෑ බල්ලෙකුගේ ප්‍රමාණයට සමාන වන තරමක් විශාල වල් බළලෙකි. සැඟවී සිටීමට යම් තරමක කැලෑවක් මායිම්ව පිහිටි වගුරු බිම්, කඩොලාන, පන් ගාල්, වැව්, ඇල දොල, ගංගා මෙන්ම ඇතැම් විට කුඹුරු ආදී ජලාශ්‍රිත පරිසර වලද දිවි ගෙවන හඳුන් දිවියා දිවයිනේ උතුරු ප්‍රදේශයේ හැර අනෙක් සෑම ප්‍රදේශයකම පාහේ සුදුසු පරිසර පද්ධති වල හමුවේ. ඇතැම් විට ආහාර සුලභව හමුවන සහ වාසය කිරීමට සුදුසු ආරක්ෂිත ස්ථාන සහිත නාගරික සහ අර්ධ නාගරික ප්‍රදේශ වලද හඳුන් දිවියන් හමුවේ. වීශේෂයෙන් කොළඹ ආශ්‍රිත වගුරු බිම් බොහෝමයක සැලකිය යුතු මට්ටමේ හඳුන් දිවි ගහණයක් වාර්තා වී ඇත. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් නිශාචර සත්වයකු වුවත් මිනිසාගෙන් තර්ජන අඩු ප්‍රදේශ වල දිවා කාලයේදි වුවද හඳුන් දිවියන් සැරිසරන ආකාරය නිරීක්ෂණය කර ඇත. ප්‍රධාන වශයෙන් මත්ස්‍යයන් ගොදුරු කරගන්නා මුත් හඳුන් දිවියා සර්පයන්, කකුළුවන්, ගොළුබෙල්ලන්, මීයන්, ගෙම්බන්, උරුලෑවන්, ඌරන්ගේ සහ මුවන්ගේ පැටවුන්, බල්ලන් , බළලුන් මෙන්ම ජලාශ්‍රිත පක්ෂීන් ආදී කුඩා සහ මධ්‍යම ප්‍රමාණයේ බොහෝ සතුන් දඩයම් කරන බවට වාර්තා ඇත. වසරේ මුල් මාස වල අභිජනනයේ යෙදෙන හඳුන් දිවියන් වරකට පැටවුන් දෙකක් හෝ තුනක් බිහි කරයි. බොහෝ විට තනිව වාසය කරන හඳුන් දිවියන් ගොදුරු සොයා යෑම සහ වාසය කිරීම උදෙසා ඔවුන් සඳහාම යම් කිසි ප්‍රදේශයක් වෙන් කර ගනී.
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A very common large rat distributed throughout the island as five sub species. It inhabits areas near human habitation because of the availability of food from household wastes. But it is not uncommon in jungles and open country. It is an omnivorous and mainly feeds on grains and vegetable matters, but also eat meats, dried fish, etc. as well as eggs rob from nests of birds when available. Common House Rat is one of the most prolific mammal and normally a female which commences to breed when she is about 5 to 6 months of age, produces 4 to 5 families each year, each family numbering 3 or 4 young ones, but some time as many as 8. The nest is a collection of grass, straw, fibers, pieces of rags or paper or any other suitable materials gathered together and secreted in some convenient spot such as beneath a rock, log or the root of a tree or if in a building, in or behind a box or in some dark corner in the roof. It is a good climber as well as a swimmer. Common House Rat is usually a solitary mammal except during the breeding season, though sometime several of them can be seen in garbage dumps and such other places where its foods are abundant. It is normally active during the night though sometime can be observed even during the day time if it is undisturbed.
Indian Brown Mongoose is a mammal inhabiting forest patches, well wooded home gardens, tea estates, and similar habitats throughout the western third of the island from northwest arid zone to higher hills. It is seldom to be found in heavy forests. However it can be also seen in urban and suburban home gardens, even within the heart of Colombo. It is usually seen as a solitary animal though mating pairs or mother-pups families occasionally encountered. Indian Brown Mongoose is a omnivorous and mainly preys on rodents, frogs, snakes, lizards, spiders, birds their eggs and young, worms, grubs, etc. It also eats berries and even flowers. Depending on the habitat, it is active both during the day and night but usually forages in the early mornings and late afternoons. Indian Brown Mongoose breeds mostly during the first few months of the year. Female Indian Brown Mongoose give birth to three or four pups in a chamber dug into an anthill or an earthen bank usually by the mother. Three sub species of Indian Brown Mongoose are accepted as H.f. phillipsi from Central Province, H.f. rubidior from the Western Province and H.f. siccatus from the Northern Province mainly base on size and color.
Small flying squirrel or Heen Hambawa (හීන් හම්බාවා) in Sinhalese is one of the rarest nocturnal mammals of heavy forests of the lower foothills
to higher altitudes (Yapa A. & Ratnavira G., 2013). As per Phillips W.W.A.
its range limited to the hills at medium altitudes with extremely local distribution
(Phillips W.W.A., 1981). Further he has given a list of places from where it
had been recorded up to then (Table 1). Other than Sri Lanka it is found only in
Western Ghats of India and there also it was re-discovered in a coconut grove
in Kerala state in 1989 after one hundred years and it was thought to be
extinct in India till then (Yapa A. & Ratnavira G., 2013 & Nanayakkara
et.al., 2012 quoting Kurup, 1989). In
2007 Jayasekara et.al. recorded it from Sinharaja forest with a black &
White picture captured by a camera trap placed on a fruiting tree to assess
fruit consumption by birds and mammals of a tropical rain forest (Jayasekara
et.al., 2007). Most recent observation
of it is from Laggala-Illukkubura road of Knuckles range made by Nanayakkara
et.al on 26th January 2013. They have observed and photographed a
single specimen while it was feeding on tender part of the shoot and leaves of a climber at 2130 hr on a tree 9m above ground level in a well-developed
semi-evergreen forest habitat . They have not
observed gliding of the animal (Nanayakkara et.al, 2013). Hitherto only color photographs available of this illusive mammal was from them and it was the first physical
examination of this species from Sri Lanka after 78 years.
Location
|
Altitude (ft)
|
|
1
|
Forests of Dimbula (in
1850s)
|
4500
|
2
|
Dickoya
|
|
3
|
Gammaduwa in the east
Mathale hills
|
2500ft
|
4
|
Kitulgala
|
900
|
5
|
Wellawaya
|
600
|
6
|
Adam’s peak wilderness
|
Flying Fox or Maa Wawula in Sinhala is the largest bat in 
