By Kusumanjalee Thilakarathna “Have you gone whale watching and seen the Blue whale? It is huge. It is like a big hill in the sea! In fact, it is the largest mammal ever to have lived and is three times as heavy as the largest dinosaur. It is as heavy as 33 African bush elephants. Its tongue is as heavy as an Asian elephant. And its heart is as big as a small car. How huge is that? And, did you know that we have Blue whales in the seas around Sri Lanka?” Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala queried. She shared some surprising facts about not only Blue whales, but many mammals that live in Sri Lanka, during a chat with children about “Mammals in Sri Lanka” held on 7 December at the Barefoot Gallery. This event was organised by the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka together with the Barefoot Bookshop. Dr. Miththapala also signed copies of her book “Mammals of Sri Lanka for Children” at the event. “The Asian elephant is as tall as a small tree and almost as high as the ceiling in your house. It is the second largest mammal you can see in Sri Lanka and the pygmy shrew (podi hik meeya in Sinhala and sinna muunjuru in Tamil) is the smallest mammal you can find here. It is as small as your little finger. “What is important to note when learning about mammals is that we are mammals too,” she said. “Mammal babies live inside their mothers before they are born, just like all of you did. Mammals all drink milk from their mother.” What’s special about mammals? Most mammals have different kinds of fur to keep warm. When it is too hot, mammals sweat and pant to cool down. They keep their body temperature the same, whatever the temperature outside, whereas many other animals have to keep warm with help from the Sun.  Mammals have different kinds of teeth. Put your tongue on your front teeth. They are fl at and square. The front teeth are used to bite your food. Then you also find on the side, a little more pointy type of teeth, used to prick your food, and at the back of your jaw, you find big square jaw teeth to chew your food. By the way, mammals, unlike reptiles and frogs and birds, can chew their food and with these four different kinds of teeth, it is easy for mammals to eat different kinds of food.

• Mammals are of three types: (1) Omnivores – animals that eat both plants and animals. The ruddy mongoose and sloth bear are examples. You eat different kinds of food, so you are an omnivore too! (2) Carnivore – mammals that eat only meat. A carnivore hunts for its food. So sometimes, we call it a predator who hunts its prey. A well-known carnivore in Sri Lanka is the leopard. (3) Herbivore – mammals that only eat plants. Some examples are cows, deer, or sheep. They have front teeth like clippers that help them snip leaves. Then, they have a lot of big, square jaw teeth to grind the leaves, and they move their jaws from side to side to grind the leaves.
• How do mammals move? You walk on two feet, but many mammals walk on four feet (example: Spotted deer) Whales and dolphins can swim and live all the time in the water. The front legs of whales and dolphins are actually their flippers. There are mammals that can fly too. Take a bat for example, they have the same bones we have in our arms and hands, but they are slightly changed in that they are longer and have become a part of a wing. Bats flap these wings to fly. What about mammals that climb and leap? The grey langur uses its hands and feet to grip and hold onto branches. You use only your hands to grip when you climb trees.
• There are also some mammals that look so strange, that when you first see them, you would not think they were mammals. The pangolin is covered with thick scales instead of fur. When there is a predator close by, a pangolin curls itself into a ball of these thick scales so that a predator can’t eat it. All the predator will get is a mouthful of scales.

Mammals endemic to Sri Lanka Some mammals – like the Asian elephant and the spotted deer – are found in many countries. Some others – such as the toque macaque monkey and the purple-faced langur – are found only in one country or region in the world (such as Sri Lanka) and nowhere else. We call theses mammals endemic to that country or region. Some other examples for endemic mammals in Sri Lanka would be the sloth bear, Sri Lankan leopard, and local Blue whale species.   What is happening to mammals in Sri Lanka? Many mammals all over the world and in Sri Lanka are getting hurt by what we do. “We cut down trees and forests, leaving these mammals without their homes and then they can even die. If we go on doing this, many mammals are in danger of disappearing forever,” Dr. Miththapala said. “Disappearing forever is called extinction,” she added. What can we do about it? Firstly, remember that mammals need their habitats in which to live – forests and trees. As such, don’t cut trees. If you have to cut a tree, plant another. If you have a big garden, plant trees, bushes, and plants. When you go to Yala, remember that you are visiting the homes of these mammals. Ask your parents to tell the jeep driver not to crowd the leopards and not to speed. When you go dolphin or whale watching again, you are in the homes of mammals that live in the sea. Ask your parents to tell your boat driver that they are supposed to keep a 100-metre distance from the whales. There are also wild and domesticated mammals. Dogs, cats, goats, and horses are domesticated and are mostly tame. But the wild animals are not tame. You should not have wild animals as pets. Domesticated mammals that have become strays are called feral animals and are no longer tame. They do not have owners and are not vaccinated. Therefore, feral and wild mammals can carry very dangerous diseases. So you should never try to touch or pet a feral or wild animal. Never try to feed them or tame them to keep them as pets. You must have heard about the seal that had got washed up near Weligama. It is still a pup. It had moved to Mt. Lavinia, Wellawatte, and Kollupitiya. And it is moulting – losing its fur. This animal needs rest because it is a long way from home and very, very tired. When these seals moult, they don’t eat, so they are weak. So it has to be left alone. But everywhere it went, people were crowding it and initially, they were even trying to touch it, feed it, and take selfies with it! This would have really frightened the animal, making it swim when it is tired. People want to get close to wildlife now, to take better photographs and selfies. But again, remember where you are when are you are with wild animals – you are in their house. NEVER forget that. Learn to watch from a distance and don’t get too near to take photographs or frighten or annoy the animal. Learn more about mammals. You can read more. Learn more about the harm we are doing them. Then tell your parents and friends what you learn.