Good parallels are not always obvious - and for Sri Lanka’s endemic mammals the best one to hand is the notorious Forth Bridge, a cantilevered railway bridge across the Firth of Forth in Scotland. It was opened in 1890 by the then Prince of Wales himself – and workers have yet to stop having to paint it.

So to with Sri Lanka’s endemic land mammals. 

Just when you have finished counting them you have to start all over again. Somewhere, with deft hands and glowing fervour, there is always to be found a scientist who has craftily and credibly reclassified the endemic civet into three distinct sub species; or added in a shrew recently discovered to have one toe longer than the rest, or a bat readmitted to the hallowed list after a much disputed and injurious explosion. 

Any number of endemic mammals from 19 to 40 is likely to be correct or totally wrong, depending on what the latest research papers have to say. The list of beasts presented in this account is, therefore, more of a vox pop than a static photograph. Its errs evangelistically on the side of generosity.  Of the 125 different species of land mammals that roam the island, about one third are endemic, counting amongst their rats, bats, civets, deer, mice, mongooses, rats, leopards, monkeys, lorises, and squirrels. But by any calculation that is an extraordinarily high number

Collectively, they may lack the innate glamour of a white tiger, the brooding menace of a yak or the familial delight of a Highland Gorilla; but they exude instead a profound and pleasing subtly, their apparent modest position in the Food Chain being as powerful an argument as any to cherish what is unique.

Unique – and threatened, for many if not all the country’s endemic mammals are threatened by a rising tide of habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. And this is where these mammals’ lack of obvious glitz cuts against them. Who cares if a shrew vanishes, or a bat ceases to fly? Not enough people – yet. 

Mr. Pooter notes in The Diary of a Nobody that  "one never loses by a good address" And so it is here, in a country so gladly patriotic, filled with creatures to celebrate.

Bat identification has become one of this island’s more exciting pastimes. For decades it was thought that the Sri Lankan Woolly Bat (Kerivoula Malpasi) was the country’s only endemic bat. This tiny creature, barely 50 mm from head to body, was first described by a tea planter, W.W.A. Phillips in 1932. It is said to enjoy sleeping in curled up banana fronds on hills between 500 to 1000 metres, though its sightings are so rare that it has not been properly assessed for a score on the IUCN list of endangered animals. 

His celebrity was however rocked when in 2022 a new medium sized endemic bat was declared here - Phillip’s Long-Fingered Bat, which, until more eagled-eyed observers got to work was long thought to be a run-of-the-mill Eastern Bent-Winged Bat. 

Little is known about the Sri Lankan Leaf-Nosed Bat as it was only identified as a new endemic species in 2025, its existence until then having been clumsily muddled up with other cousins and near cousins. It tell-tale giveaways were its extra board nose, unusual ear shape, and the marginally different set to the bone structure of its tiny head.

Troubled by the sheer lack of scientific information about the behaviour of the Ceylon Spotted Deer (Axis Axis Ceylonensis), the Department of Zoology, at Sri Lanka’s Eastern University, conducted a detailed study of a particular population in Trincomalee. After months of observation, they concluded, reassuringly, that “their main activities were feeding and play.” 

Scientists are much divided on the subject of animal play, and tortured monographs have been written attempting to pin down the very concept of animal play. To some it is merely an evolutionary by product; others claim it ensures animals teach one another about fairness and consequences. That the Sri Lankan Axis Deer should be minded to play at all is encouraging for it an increasing vulnerable species, its preferred habitats - lowland forests, and shrub lands – shrinking, and with it the grasses, leaves, and fruit it lives on. 

Living in groups of 10 to 60 animals, their numbers are now counted in just several thousands. They live in herds of up to one hundred, and are seen by leopards, bears, crocodile, jackals, and hungry villagers, as living supermarkets of fresh meat. Standing up to a hundred centimetres high, their delicately white spotted fawn coats present them as everything a perfect deer ought to be, as is appropriate for an animal that is part of the island’s select few endemic mammals.

Although known collectively as chevrotains or mouse deer, these tiny mammals are generic gypsies, the DNA actually nestling somewhere between that of a pig and that of a deer. Solitary and little more than 1 to 4 kilos in weight and 18 inches in head to body length, they are the world’s smallest hoofed mammals. They live scattered in the forests of Sri Lanka, gorgeous looking – although popular superstition adds the terrible caveat that a man who gets scratched by the hind foot of a mouse deer will develop leprosy. This has yet to be fully verified by scientists.

Scientists have however spent a lot of time arguing over their endemic status and how they compare to their Indian cousin, the Indian chevrotain (Moschiola indica). 

The nearest in looks is the Sri Lankan White-Spotted Chevrotain - Moschiola meminna. Its separate identity was only confirmed as recently as 2005. White spots trail down its sides and back and three white bands cross its rump. Although it can be seen right across the island and in good numbers, it is so secretive and nocturnal that actually spotting one is a challenge. 

Its smaller and no less endemic cousin in Sri Lanka is the Yellow-Striped Chevrotain - Moschiola kathygre. Its colouration is golden brown rather than whiteish brown. Several horizontal rows of yellow spots run along its flanks, with bolder stripes on its haunches. It sticks mostly to the wetter parts of southwestern Sri Lanka, preferably rainforest, plantations, and rice paddies.

The rarified world of mouse deer enthusiasts was rocked recently by reports of a possible third endemic version of the chevrotain from Horton Palins. It was found to be much larger than other chevrotains and studies of its skull validated ther the status that it was a new chevrotain evolution. But blood test and other research is still being caried out in order to properly determine if this Mountain Mouse Deer, known as Meeminna in Singhala, is a new endemic species.

One of the island’s two civets, the Asian Palm Civet or Toddy Cat, is found in both Indian and Sri Lanka  but it around the identification of the second palm civet that scientists get most excited. 

When life was simple, long ago; and when beige, like black or white, came in just one colour choice, it was thought that the island was home to just one endemic palm civet. But scientists, zookeepers, and wildlife photographs like Dhammika Malsinghe, Dr. Wolfgang Dittus, Dr Devka Weerakoon, and Channa Rajapaksha have in the past fifteen years worked hard to evaluate this assumption. 

By careful observation, the checking of paw prints, the measurement of bodies and assessment of markings (beige or off-beige), they have instead come to the conclusion – now...