Taiwan Montane Forests - A Global Ecoregion

Some of the best remaining examples of East Asian moist forests

About the Area
This Global ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Taiwan subtropical evergreen forests; South Taiwan monsoon rain forests.

Because the island of Taiwan is located near the border of of two biological realms - the Palaearctic and Indomalayan, its forests support many tropical species at the northern limit of their ranges.

One-third of all of Taiwan's plants occur here, including 88 orchid species, and 160 plants endemic to the island.

Local Species
Two of the fourteen bird species that occur in this ecoregion, and are endemic to the island of Taiwan are Taiwan blue pheasant (Lophora swinhoi), and Taiwan long-tailed pheasant (Syrmaticus mikado).

The flora of this East Asian Island includes many disctinctive conifers such as Amentotaxus formosana, Cephalotaxus wilsoniana, Chamaecyparis formosensis, Cunninghamia konishii, Picea morrisonicola, Podocarpus fasciculus, Pseudotsuga wilsoniana, and Taiwania cryptomerioides.

Other significant plants include Cycad, Cycas taitungensis, and many angiosperms like Rhododendron, Camellia and Lauraceae that are representative of the East Asian montane forests.

Mammals include the endemic monkey - Taiwanese macaque (Macaca cyclopis), and other species more widespread but rare, such as Serow (Capricornis crispus), Sambar (Cervus Unicolor), Sitka deer (C. nippon), and Asiatic black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus). Amphibians of Taiwan include the Taipei tree frog (Rhacophorus taipcianus), and Formosan salamander (Hynobius formosanus).

Threats
Tourism, uncontrolled collection of wild plants, and large construction projects are some of the major threats to this ecoregion.

Resources
• NationalGeographic.com