Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim Moist Forests - A Global Ecoregion
Contains Indochina's largest block of moist forests
Snapshot: Ecoregion 29
Size:
217,000 sq. km (83,000 sq. miles)
Habitat type:
Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Geographic Location:
Southeast Asia: Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand
Conservation Status:
Vulnerable
Quiz Time!
Which is the world's smallest mammal?
Answer:
The world's smallest mammal, the Kitti's hog-nosed bat, lives in limestone caves in these forests. The bat is about the size of a bumblebee.
About the Area
This Global ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests; Kayah-Karen montane rain forests.
It contains Indochina's largest block of moist forests, one of its richest plant diversities (partly because of the geographical spread), and its largest number of mammals like tigers (Panthera tigris), Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), Gaurs (Bos gaurus), and Clouded leopards (Pardofelis nebulosa).The high diversity of habitats in this ecoregion enables many species to live side by side.
Local Species
Bird species include the Gurney's pitta (Pitta gurneyi), Great hornbill (Buceros bicornis), lady Amherst's pheasant, the Hume's pheasant, the Silver pheasant, and the rare Green peafowl.
Other notable mammal species are the Fea's muntjak (Muntiacus feae) - a small deer with prominent, vampire-like canine teeth, rarely found anywhere outside of these forests, Bear macaque (Macaca arctoides), and the Hoolock gibbon (Hylobates hoolock).
The forests contain a mix of plants usually found in temperate regions such as the Himalayas, oriental regions such as Vietnam and eastern China, and Malaysian regions such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
Trees, such as Dipterocarpus alatus, D. turbinatus, Parashorea stellata, Limacia cuspidate, plus teak forest species such as Tectona grandis and Xylia dolabriformis constitute only a small portion of the vegetational diversity that makes these forests so rich.
Threats
Once-extensive forests have already been lost as a result of logging (resulting both from legal concessions and illegal extraction) and conversion to agriculture - some areas having been converted to rubber plantations. Soil erosion as a result of large-scale clear-cutting is of special concern. Development pressures, including dam and highways construction are also problematic.
Resources
• NationalGeographic.com
