Colombo, June 14 -- The recent data on the animal census conducted by the Agriculture Ministry cannot be used to identify whether the animal species counted are endangered or not, due to a lack of scientific methods to back the results, a senior environmentalist said.

Environmentalist Dr. Jagath Gunawardana, who is also a lawyer, told the Daily Mirror that the entire census was not done using scientific methodology. He said it was carried out by untrained staff."

Asked about any conclusion on wildlife population, he said, "it is not possible to use this data at all. The data is incorrect."

The data revealed that Sri Lanka is home to 5.17 million Toque macaques, 1.74 million other monkeys, 2.66 million giant squirrels, and 4.24 million ...