On a sunny day, back in the mid-Sixties and well into the early Eighties, the gates of a dignified, laidback bungalow on Dickman’s Road, Colombo 4, would open and a dignified, laidback and quite splendid vehicle would emerge; it would pause, turn left or right, and sedately head into town. As heads turned to admire the grand old car noiselessly gliding past – magnificent in a coat of yellow and black paint – heads would also register how uncommonly well paired were the car and its front-seat occupants.

A bundle of limbs and fur with huge, soulful eyes disproportionate to its body, it is considered by some to be one of the ugliest creatures in the world. For zoologist Saman Gamage and his team, however, on that chilly morn on Conical Hill in Nuwara Eliya when it came into their “sights” it was “beautiful”.