Mysteries
and surprises abound in the nocturnal world of "Leopards of Yala."
For more than a century, Yala National Park in Sri Lanka has been one
of Asia's most celebrated wildlife preserves, a lush windswept tropical
forest rich in rare aquatic birds and abundant with ferocious predators,
such as crocodiles and sloth bears. But only in very recent years has
Yala's big cat distinction been brought to light: It contains one of
the world's largest concentrations of leopards. NATURE takes viewers
deep into the jungle habitat of these elusive animals, in "Leopards
of Yala." Over a period of six years, Jehan Kumara, a businessman from
Sri Lanka's capital city of Colombo, and Dr. Ravi Samarasinha, a physician
from the local countryside, devoted their spare time to tracking leopards
in Yala. In the course of their work, they are joined by Scottish cameraman
Gordon Buchanan, attracted to Yala by the lure of finding the only big
cat he had never captured on film.
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