Naturalist Profile

Rukmal Ratnayake has been passionate in studying and conserving nature since childhood. He has graduated in biological science from the University of Colombo. Currently Working as a conservation biologist through his own company named ‘Nature Lover – Rukmal (BR # 01/8844).

He has nine years of experience in guiding wildlife observation tours including bird watching for local and foreign wildlife explorers, conducting nature educational programs for school and university students as well as for the trainees of the department of wildlife conservation , wildlife documentary filmmaking, working as an ecologist, fauna expert and the field team leader in environment impact assessment studies and biodiversity baseline studies, wildlife art, natural history art and wildlife photography. Also he was one of the former presidents of the Butterfly Conservation Society of Sri Lanka, a former committee member of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL), a member of the FOGSL bird ringing team, and a past member of the Young Zoologists Association of Sri Lanka. He has field experience in terrestrial wildlife of all the climatic zones of Sri Lanka, most of the wildlife parks and forest reserves. He is skilled in spotting, and identification of species, guiding for photography and providing a description on their ecology and behavior.

He is good at conducting both day time and night tours. Birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and butterflies are the main taxa groups he covers during a tour.