Monsoon rain filled Diyasaru Park, leaving much of our study site underwater. We had to remove some camera traps and fit others with waterproof casings before fieldwork could continue.
Scenes like this show one of the functions that urban wetlands perform. They temporarily hold excess rainwater, preserving the landscape’s water-storage capacity and reducing flood risk in low-lying Colombo. The same wetland that supports fishing cats also forms part of the city’s flood-management system (World Bank, 2016).
