The only good kind of “viral” is viral content. That magical picture or video that captures the hearts of thousands, if not more, and is shared incessantly all over the world. It’s not always easy to tell which piece of content will go the distance – become viral – and sometimes what does go viral, intentionally or otherwise, can be truly surprising. Take Bernie Sanders at the presidential inauguration, for instance.
Sri Lanka had its own version of a viral moment recently courtesy of a somewhat rambunctious young male leopard named “Julius”. A resident of Yala National Park, Julius was caught on film stalking a herd of buffalo before attempting to capture a young calf from the herd, drawing the ire of the adults in the herd.
These moments, caught on film by a group of visitors to the park, went viral. Videos captured by author and 2019 Gratiaen Prize winner Andrew Fidel Fernando and his tracker Ravindiu Sahimal garnered 13,500 views on Twitter. Reposted on the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka (WNPS) Instagram page, the video went on to gain over 3,000 views in the space of an hour.
The virality of this moment, which was seen online and shared by thousands across the world, from Sri Lanka to the US and the UK to Australia and New Zealand, to name a few, shows the power Sri Lanka’s wildlife resources have to inspire people on both local and international scales.
Following a year that has seen wildlife and nature conservation take a major hit with the human-elephant conflict escalating to unprecedented levels, large parcels of protected land being reclaimed for development, and the highest number of reported leopard deaths in years, it begs the question: Is it not high time we appreciated the power of our wildlife resources and were more mindful in protecting it?
Seeing the remarkable moment up close and personal
The Sunday Morning Brunch spoke to Andrew Fidel Fernando, who shared that despite visiting Yala many times in the past, he had never been able to witness a leopard stalking its prey in such close quarters before and had never before seen a leopard attack, which is a very rare occurrence, particularly within the park.
Speaking on being able to witness something so rare and seeing it go viral, Fernando shared that moments like this “show wildlife at its most raw, even being kind of brutal. It shows what we have going on in our forests and jungles, and anytime you see something that captures your attention, you’re more likely to think about it. What people take away is that it is worth protecting.”
Much has been said in 2020 about the issue of over-visitation in national parks. The pandemic, with its lockdown and complete halt to foreign visitors, saw a drastic drop in visitors to our national parks. Combined with our three-month-long national lockdown, this meant visitors and casual human involvement at parks were at an all-time low. Many conservationists noticed a drastic change in animal behaviour within the parks.
Over-visitation in parks creates a good deal of disturbance to the animals and their environments. The increased number of visitors increases the need for quality animal sightings, which in turn leads to animals being hounded when spotted, with tour guides often racing across the park after receiving a phone call from other personnel that an animal has been spotted. This racing across the park causes its own damage, not just in terms of animals being run over and injured or killed, but also in terms of the surrounding vegetation being compromised. The increased number of visitors also disrupts the animals’ daily activities and sometimes forces them to hide.
Environmental Foundation Ltd. (EFL) Director and conservationist Rukshan Jayawardene explained that the drop in visitors to our parks over 2020 has led to a dramatic increase in quality wildlife sightings.
“Definitely, you’ll have better quality sightings because the disturbance level of animals is low,” Jayawardene said. In the case of leopards, he said: “Animals that don’t tolerate human presence too well will get inhibited and will abandon their hunt.”
Julius’ hunt a case study for reducing park visitation in the long term?
Commenting on Julius’ now famously documented hunt, Jayawardene shared that Julius is a leopard that is relatively comfortable around humans. “This particular situation happened on the main road of Yala, about a kilometre from the gate. Julius is possibly one of the most habituated leopards in the park, and this hunt could have happened at any time because he doesn’t really care. In fact, he often sits on a tree overhanging the road.”
An interesting development, Jayawardene noted, was that as a young adult, no one until now has seen Julius hunt, and it is clear from the footage that he is inexperienced with actual hunting.
Julius’ hunt was not the most successful, given that several buffaloes were chasing after him as he ran off-camera, dragging his (still living) prey with him. Jayawardene noted that the hunt could have gone differently, had it been a normal pre-pandemic day in the park because there would have been many more vehicles observing Julius and the buffaloes, which could have made the hunt more difficult for Julius on a tactical level, even to the point where he could have been hemmed in by vehicles and unable to hunt.
Curated travel experience provider Sensory Indulgences also agreed that during the pandemic and following the lockdown, there was a massive increase of sightings reported.
“These are some of the good things. The pandemic has cleaned the playground a bit and made nature come back. Previously, 400 to 500 jeeps used to visit the park each day. Now, the amount of visitors locally as well as globally has reduced and animals are freer to roam around; there seem to be a lot of great sightings as compared to before the pandemic. I’ve seen some crazy footage and captures, from leopards to sloths to serpents – everything, which has been fabulous,” Sensory Indulgences Managing Director (MD) Udaya Wickramage noted.
Commenting on over-visitation within parks, Wickramage noted that while on a personal level he would like to see Yala and other parks lower their visitor numbers, there are other factors to consider, such as jeep drivers and their livelihoods. Wickramage explained that there were ongoing discussions looking into using the different blocks of Yala to cater to different visitors, with, for example, Block 1 of the park being used by the jeep drivers for mass-market wildlife tourism and Block 2 being used by luxury tour operators for more quality wildlife tourism experiences at a premium rate.
Taking wildlife viral: New frontier for tourism and conservation?
With the potential for Sri Lanka’s wildlife to go viral being discovered, now comes the next step: How can we use this potential?
Travel and lifestyle influencer Nicky De Silva (@nickizzle) noted that since wildlife’s potential is now firmly established, “it’s good if we can use it to promote Sri Lanka because that is our main thing, and more awareness in a positive way can definitely make a huge impact on Sri Lankan tourism”.
De Silva shared how she saw a group of monkeys playing with polythene bags during her last visit to a national park to create content – a sight which was heartbreaking because it illustrated how careless human beings can be when it comes to littering. Topics like this can also be covered when creating content, with De Silva explaining that while it is always good to focus on the positives while making content, we should also focus on the not-so-positives because we need to protect animals and the environment.
Wickramage spoke about the potential of viral content, explaining that encounters like the one with Julius are unstaged and that unstaged natural encounters have a very good chance of going viral abroad, catching the eye of people who want to travel to Sri Lanka. An issue that needs attention, though, is making sure our virality is global and not limited to local audiences and our diaspora.
“For something to go viral, we need to spread it; how and where we do that and ensuring it reaches the global market is important. Viral videos can easily help promote tourism,” Wickramage said.
In aiding conservation, viral content also has a huge part to play, and one that content creators should treat as a responsibility. “While sharing positive viral content, I believe we should also create more awareness with regard to keeping our animals safe. We have seen how so many leopards have been killed in Sri Lanka over the past year, and putting beautiful, rare footage like this out will not only increase the number of tourists, but will also raise awareness about the plight of leopards and help increase publicity for campaigners and national parks, while creating major awareness about how important it is to keep these rare animals safe.”
Weighing in on conservation and virality, Wickramage noted that while viral content was not likely to directly aid conservation efforts, indirectly, viral content could go a long way towards creating an interest in wildlife, especially in those who wish to deepdive into research. Viral content could also potentially allow conservation stakeholders like the Department of Wildlife Conservation to more effectively look after wildlife in parks. Using the example of Julius’ hunt, Wickramage noted that both Julius and the buffalo calf were injured – the calf by Julius’ attack and Julius in the resulting scuffle with adult buffaloes when he was trying to drag his prey away. Viral content like that of Julius’ hunt provides the opportunity for conservationists to keep an eye on the area in question for any distress.
Wickramage also stressed the need for responsibility and mindfulness on the part of all citizens when it comes to Sri Lanka’s diverse and bountiful wildlife. “It’s high time to see if we’re going to continue in this destructive pattern, or if we are going to take a conservative approach and preserve this resource for our future.”
Main photo by Krishan Kariyawasam
