Ridiyagama Safari Park

Ridiyagama Safari Park is a 500-acre safari park and zoo in Hambantota District, Sri Lanka. The park officially opened to the public on May 28, 2016. Although the park reservation covers 500 acres, only about 200 acres are currently developed and are being gradually expanded. The plan called for nine separate wildlife zones, of which four are currently operational.

The park was designed to give animals as much freedom of movement as possible while keeping visitors caged. The 80-acre mammal zone is home to a wide variety of grazers and flightless birds from the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Rare mammals such as Cape Buffalos, Zebras, camels, antelopes, guanacos, and ostriches are among them.

The elephant zone covers 54 acres. There are several small elephant groups as well as an African Elephant roaming the grounds with a pair of majestic tusks. This African elephant was relocated from the Dehiwala Zoological Gardens to this park.

In the 5-acre Bengal Tiger Zone, there are six Balali Tigers. All are accustomed to humans and approach vehicles without fear. The Lion Zone is up next. There are 14 lions in this zone. At the park’s inception, seven lions were imported from various countries. The remaining seven lions were born in the park, and another male lion born there was donated to the Sri Lanka Army’s Ambepussa Sinha Regiment as their mascot.

Please note that personal vehicles are not allowed to enter the safari grounds. Therefore a visitor has only 2 options, use some of the few busses with meshed windows or hire one of the few jeeps available.