Walking in single file, voices low, we follow Sajith's lead and clamber through the grasslands, taking care not to become tangled in the twigs underfoot. Our ranger has an Indiana Jones-like persona and, armed with a trusty wooden cane and heightened senses, plots our route through the Yala bush.
A deer's distress cry cuts through the air – echoed by a troop of monkeys sounding the alarm. Sajith follows the noise and later detects the scent of a fresh carcass in our midst.
It's the calling card of the jungle's most elusive resident and the top of Sri Lanka's food chain. Yala has one of the highest leopard densities in the world, largely owing to the lack of other predators (there aren't any lions or tigers) and copious amounts of prey. On this occasion, we had missed the spotted creature by just a few minutes.
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