EXPLORING THE POTENTIALS FOR BIRD WATCHING TOURISM IN UDAWALAWE NATIONAL PARK IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Nature-based tourism is the main tourism assert, consisting of a number of establishments such as wildlife viewing, bird watching, walking safaris, photographic, reef diving, whale watching, trophy hunting, and sport fishing, etc has become one of the rapidly developing industries in the world making plenty of opportunities for tourism-related business in the world. Among the nature-based tourism activities, bird watching is the most famous recreational activity. Favorable and diverse climatic conditions and natural habitats in Sri Lanka makes a paradise for birds and other wild animals and considering natural habitats in Udawalawe National Park (UWNP) is the main national park famous for nature-based tourism, especially for elephants and other wild animals watching. The main objective of the study is to explore the potentials for the development of bird watching tourism, as a specific form of nature-based tourism in Udawalawe National Park. In the current study, the purposive sampling technique was followed and the primary data were collected by field observations and semi-structured interviews (field discussions during the safari game drive), and both were conducted parallelly. The study was conducted from 1st of April, 2022 to 15th of July, 2022 and field observations were conducted for selected 50 bird species according to visitors’ interest and the uniqueness of bird species in UWNP while the fulfillment of the current study, 32 safari game drives were completed with the Eco team Mahoora safari group. The researcher collected data, those have been utilized for qualitative analysis to achieve the study objectives. According to the research findings of field observations, there were significant bird species, most of them were aquatic species such as SP22 (Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala)) and SP23 (Woolly-necked Stork (Ciconia nigra)). Instead of the aquatics, raptors especially Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela) and Brown Fish Owl (Ketupa zeylonensis) were available at UWNP. During the study period, around 48% of visitors were interested in bird watching and they commented as UWNP is a birds’ paradise and is highly recommended for bird watching. Finally, after conducting this study researcher could be able to find out there is a greater extent of the potential for bird watching tourism in UWNP. Further, the current study can be continued for the rest of the months of the year is better to identify hotspot bird species, for particular locations. And finally, hotspot mapping will be developed for captured bird species for the whole over the year and that will be important for the tourism industry in UWNP.