A dense canopy towers high overhead the Kottawa Rainforest and Arboretum, 45 minutes from Galle. This relatively small rainforest hosts a wide variety of flora, with many species labeled, and makes for a beautiful excursion.. It is much smaller than Sinharaja measuring only 1,800ha in extent. You get a great experience of a rainforest environment under the huge trees forming such a compact canopy above, walking along in a comparative gloom to the bright sunshine many metres above. You?ll see a great variety of plant life, from the fungus on the giant tree trunks, to the mossy, damp leaf-litter hiding lizards and frogs, within a wet zone habitat that these creatures thrive in. The trees are marked along the pathways so you can identify each one. Butterflies flutter past you and many brightly coloured birds that you can hear twittering in the trees come to lighten the gloom. Many are endemic to Sri Lanka such as the Grey Hornbill (Tockus griseus). As far as mammals go, you may catch glimpses of the Sri Lanka Giant Squirrel (Ratufa macroura) and Purple-faced Leaf Monkey (Tachypithecus vetulus)

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