The forest encompasses an area of 89 square kilometers and is part of the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests eco region. Because of the dense vegetation, spotting wildlife is harder than in the dry-zone parks such as Yala. Over 50% of endemic species of fauna are living in Sinharaja Tropical rain forest. A record 282 birds were spotted in Sinharaja compared to the 384 spotted in the whole island. Butterflies, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are other fauna types abundant in Sinharaja. Sinharaja Forest Reserve lies 176 kilometer away from Colombo and takes around 4 hours to get to.