Sigiriya Forest Sanctuary | I’m crawling along a trail carved through the dark tropical Sri Lankan jungle in silence with six other participants from Germany, US, UK and Australia. The curated nocturnal tour is designed to spot the elusive Grey Slender Loris, a squirrel-sized primate extremely rare to find and spotted only in southern India and Sri Lanka.
With gargantuan, deep-set eyes, and long, skinny limbs, the Grey Slender Loris is an endangered species with some sub-species, such as the Horton Plains Loris, teetering on the edge of extinction. But we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Trudging through the dense Sigiriya forest reserve in Sri Lanka, we’re armed with torches and headlight lamps emitting red lights to spot the slightest movement of the loris on trees.
Navigating the occasional stream and bamboo bridge, we tune into an elemental symphony of hooting owls, chirping bats, and other nightly creatures. It feels like an embrace of Mother Nature unlike any I’ve experienced before. Enveloped by silence all around, and advised to remain silent lest we scare the loris away, I focus on my surroundings instead of my phone or laptop. Leaves rustling among trees, twigs crunching underfoot, the serenading zephyr, and the starlight permeating the foliage creating a fascinating chiaroscuro of patterns. I feel a deep connection to the earth and nature akin to the one induced by the Japanese concept of "shinrin yoku" or forest bathing.
Interestingly, the reserve we’re marching through is part of Sri Lanka’s Jetwing hotel chain’s eco-property: Jetwing Vil Uyana. Not far looms the ancient rock fortress of Sigiriya in the heart of Sri Lanka’s famous Cultural Triangle. “The word loris,” explains our guide Yesitha Rodrigo as we continue to crane our necks to inspect more trees, “comes from the Dutch word ‘loeris’ meaning fool, joker or jester."
Slender lorises, he adds, grows to between six and10 inches in size while its oversized, close-set brown eyes help it in its night-time hunting. “Lorises are never seen during day when they duck, roll into balls, and sleep. Even at night, there’s a very short window to spot them. They’re shy creatures and are also never seen around eagles and owls as they’re the biggest threat to them. They make a very high pitch noise when threatened, which Sri Lankans consider inauspicious to hear,” he explains.
The reserve’s faunal diversity is breathtaking. It hosts around 150 species of birds, rare wildcats, nesting crocodiles, peacocks and deer. From my room each morning, I could sample a rich feast of fauna—the pretty Prinia, yellow-billed babblers, leafbirds, sunbirds, Sri Lankan white eye, magpies, myna…it’s a different type of Twitter than the one I’m used to!
About 15 minutes into the trail, suddenly there’s a commotion in the bushes. Rodrigo whispers “snake” and “civet cat.” Even as we scan the dark to spot the announced beasts, he suddenly urges us to look overhead. A loris is peeping through the foliage of a sacred fig tree with its big round eyes. Soon, we spot more of them. Two, three, four, five. The first is feeding on a winged insect; the others hanging between trees on hind legs. We’ve hit the loris jackpot! We relish our sighting even more as Rodrigo whispers that the previous group couldn’t spot even a single one of the creatures.
“Because lorises are rare, their conservation is also critical so we raise awareness in schools and among public for the survival of these fragile creatures. That’s why our loris tour is free of charge for guests staying at Jetwing,” Rodrigo explains before shepherding us all to the Jetwing Loris Conservation Centre, the first of its kind in the world.
The centre was launched two decades ago by the hotel, and through its efforts 29 lorises have been added to the reserve apart from the development of a research center and the publication of two books on the primate.
Inside the conservation centre, Rodrigo gives us a presentation about the loris’ life and habits with the help of charts and audio visuals. We’re told the loris’ average lifespan is seven to nine years, although in captivity they can live up to 12 years. “The loris pregnancy typically lasts five months and their diet includes flowers and berries as well as lizards, gecko and mice,” he explains.
Thanks to the centre’s efforts, the reserve’s biodiversity has surged significantly over the past 15 years providing the lorises a flourishing habitat to live in. The wetland also now boasts over 157 species of birds and over 29 mammals, with the numbers of butterflies, reptiles, and amphibians also increasing significantly. Its two lakes have become a haven for animal species during the summer months too, when other water sources in the region dry up. Jetwing has also partnered with local communities to promote sustainable tourism practices and support community development initiatives.
Enriched with so much information about one of the world’s rarest primates, I follow Rodrigo back to my villa through the dark forest. And voila, just as we’re negotiating a forested patch, we spot two more lorises frolicking among the trees! As we look up they stare back at us, their eyes glittering like jewels. We smile at each other and whip out our iPhones quickly to capture the frisky creatures on film. But they vamoose as quickly as they’d appeared reminding us of the magic of the untamed, also a lesson in mindfulness and rolling with surprises.