The nation­al park fea­tures a diverse ecosys­tem that includes mon­soon forests, dry mon­soon forests, thorn forests, marine and fresh­wa­ter wet­lands, grass­lands, marsh­es, and sandy beach­es along the coast.
Yala is com­prised most­ly of meta­mor­phic rock with red­dish-brown and grey soil top­ping most of the area.
The park is locat­ed in a dry semi-arid region with rain occur­ring most­ly dur­ing the north­east mon­soon sea­son.
There are 215 species of birds call­ing the area home; the area is one of 70 areas clas­si­fied as impor­tant bird sanc­tu­ar­ies for the coun­try of Sri Lan­ka. There are 44 species of mam­mals with some of the more pop­u­lar being ele­phant, water buf­fa­lo, sloth bear, and leop­ard. Yala Nation­al Park has one of the dens­est pop­u­la­tions of leop­ards in the world.It cov­ers an area of 377.9 square miles (978.8 sq km).