COLOMBO, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's initiative to promote the country's wildlife parks virtually, titled Go on a Couch Safari, which covered live wildlife streams from the national parks has gathered tremendous interest and enthusiasm from travellers, local media has reported.

The first episodes which were streamed live from Minneriya and Kaudulla National Parks, in the North Central province, has created over 100,000 impressions on social media and close to 800 comments from both local and international travellers, the local Daily FT reported.

"We have had great response from viewers, and the engagement is very high. There is such a latent demand for wildlife in the island and this shows the necessity of promoting Sri Lanka's wildlife to the world," Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando was quoted as saying.

Streaming of the wildlife parks was done through Facebook, YouTube and shared simultaneously on leading streaming channels in the world such as Roku TV, Apple TV and Periscope to reach a wider international audience.

The virtual experience was shown seven times from Nov. 4 to Nov. 13.

Due to irregular appearances by animals, the final two to three hours of the virtual tour did not go according to the script. Several senior local wildlife experts and hosts led the virtual tour which included showing the wildlife in the parks, and answering questions by the audience.

One audience told Xinhua that due to the present dry season, several elephants were shown to gather at a reservoir in Minneriya to quench their thirst.

The audience said she also witnessed a female elephant with her 3-month-old calf searching for food while another scene showing an elephant shying away at the sight of local fishermen.

In addition to the elephants, rare birds, owls, and other animals were also witnessed in the couch safari.

Sri Lanka's wildlife varies from elephants to leopards and a vast number of various birds.

The island is also renowned for whales sighting, including the blue whales.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the country's tourism industry was one of the worst-hit, especially after Sri Lanka closed its international airports in March following the detection of the first local patient. Enditem

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