Mango Tango Mud in Udawalawe National Park

Sri Lankan Elephant, Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka

One of three recognized special of Asian elephants, the Sri Lankan elephant is much smaller than the African elephant. A patchy, almost spotted pink depigmentation is found on its ears, face, and trunk, though the mango tango mud hides the pink in this photo. See the shot below for a better view of the depigmentation. A very low percentage of Sri Lankan elephants, about 2% of the population, have tusks. In addition to Udawalawe National Park, where this photo was taken, Sri Lankan elephants can be found in Yala National Park, Lunugamvehera National Park, Wilpattu National Park and Minneriya National Park but also live outside protected areas. We did not see elephants in Yala National Park the day we visited, but they were plentiful in Udawalawe. Sri Lanka is said to have the highest density of elephants in Asia, largely restricted to the dry zone in the north, east and southeast of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan Elephant, Udawalawe National Park, Sri Lanka

Join Jennifer’s Color Your World 2018: 120 Days of Crayola, a 4 month (January 1, 2018 to April 30, 2018) blogging challenge event. Each day has a new color theme based on a past or current crayon color in Crayola’s box of 120 crayons.