United States
£ GBP
Increasingly the segmentation between birders, butterfly watchers, dragonfly watchers and photographers is reducing as interests overlap and there is a demand for books that cover the three popular groups. The emphasis for the 148 species of butterfly and 78 dragonflies featured in this second edition is on the commoner species, covering around 90 per cent of those that a visitor is likely to see. It is also an excellent book for residents to learn about the commoner butterflies and dragonflies before progressing to more advanced technical books. The guide is focussed on field use to help beginners and experts identify species and provides information on their distribution and habitats. As identification of butterflies and dragonflies require a different approach, the two sections are done as two mini photographic field guides with common introductory sections to wildlife watching in Sri Lanka. The book includes information on the key wildlife sites, general introductions to the biology of dragonflies and butterflies, up-to-date checklists with local status and useful references for people who wish to progress further with their study of these charismatic and photogenic animals.
Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne has played a pivotal role in branding Sri Lanka for its wildlife using a blend of writing, photography, business acumen, media skills and science. He has explained that the island's combination of easy to see charismatic large land mammals, outstanding whale watching and disproportionate species richness on land and sea, compactness and tourism infrastructure, gives it a strong claim to be the best all-round wildlife destination for commercial wildlife tourism. This claim was preceded by the claim that for commercial wildlife tourism, the island was the best for big game safaris outside Africa. Gehan has played a key role in the research and development of many of the building blocks for these claims
