Annamite Range Moist Forests - A Global Ecoregion

Two new large mammals discovered

About the Area
This Global ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Southern Annamites montane rain forests; Northern Annamites rain forests. This region contains some of the last relatively intact moist forests in Indochina as they managed to continually intercept the moisture-laden monsoon winds that blew in from the Gulf of Tonkin.

This allowed the plants and animals adapted to moist conditions to seek refuge here and evolve into specialised species that are found nowhere else on Earth. These forests harbor large vertebrate faunas, including several newly discovered species.

Local Species
Scientists have discovered just six large mammal species worldwide in the entire last century. But during the 1990s, within a space of five years, two new large mammals were discovered in the Annamite range - the Sao la (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) or Vu Quang ox, and a deer called the Giant muntjac (Megamuntiacus vuquangensis).

These forests are home to a variety of mammals, including Tigers (Panthera tigris), Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), several species of Muntjak, Gibbons, Leaf monkeys, and the endangered Douc langur (Pygathrix nemaeus). Notable bird species include the endemic Sooty babbler (Stachyris herberti), Imperial pheasant (Lophura imperialis), and the Vietnamese pheasant (L. hatinhensis).

Threats
Increased commercial logging, large hydropower projects, unsustainable levels of shifting cultivation, and intensive illegal hunting threaten the natural communities of the Annamite Range Moist Forests. Additionally, pressure on these mountain forests and the animals that live there is increasing as people from the densely populated lowlands of Vietnam move into the region.

Resources
• NationalGeographic.com