Park animals survive

Sri Lankan wildlife officials are amazed that despite the cost in human life caused by last weekend's tsunami, no dead animals had been found so far.

"The strange thing is we have not recorded any dead animals," said Mr H D Ratnayake, deputy director of the National Wildlife Department. Giant waves reached Yala National Park, situated more than two miles inland in the southeast of the country.

Yala National Park is Sri Lanka's biggest wildlife reserve, home to some 200 Asian elephants, crocodile, wild boar, water buffalo and grey langur monkeys. It also has Asia's largest concentration of leopards. "No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster," Mr Ratnayake added.

Floodwaters uprooted trees and toppled cars - one was found perched atop a tree - but the animals remained unharmed.

"I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal," Mr Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, who runs a hotel in the park, said.