Wildest Islands

This film uncovers how all life on Sri Lanka centres on one precious resource: water. Unusually, two different monsoons visit the island each year, drenching the windswept coastal plains with weeks of torrential rain. For the rest of the year, the animals of the plains must endure months of drought. Elephants numbering in their hundreds gather on the shores of a vast lake in search of water. Bold Sri Lankan leopards stalk spotted deer visiting waterholes. Mugger crocodiles, confined within small pools, choose the dry season to mate. Bee-eaters dig nesting tunnels in the dusty ground, and troops of toque macaques battle for status and hierarchy in the island’s ancient Buddhist monuments.