Lambir Hills National Park Taman Negara Bukit Lambir | |
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Map of Borneo, Malaysia | |
Location | Sarawak, Malaysia |
Nearest city | Miri |
Coordinates | 4°12′47″N114°01′48″E / 4.213°N 114.03°E [1] |
Area | 6,952 ha (17,180 acres) |
Established | 1975 |
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The Lambir Hills National Park (Malay : Taman Negara Bukit Lambir) is a national park in Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. [2] It is a small park, at 6,952 hectares (17,180 acres), and is composed largely of mixed dipterocarp forest, with some small areas of 'kerangas' (heath forest). The park is 150–465 m (492–1,526 ft) above sea level.
Biologists have recorded 237 species of birds, 64 species of mammals, 46 species of reptiles and 20 species of frogs in the national park. Large mammals such as gibbons and sun bear are absent or very rare due to the small size of the forest and illegal hunting. [3] More recent surveys (2003–2007), however, failed to find 20% of the park's resident bird species and 22% of the mammal species, losses that include half of the park's primate species and six out of seven hornbill species. [4] Collapse in population of large mammals and birds is an ecological disaster in Lambir. [5]
The park's invertebrates include the Rajah Brooke's Birdwing butterfly ( Trogonoptera brookiana ) and more than 300 species of ants. [6] Leeches are rare.
In 1991, the Sarawak Forest Department, Center for Tropical Forest Science/Harvard University, and the Plant Ecology Laboratory of Osaka City University, Japan created the Lambir Hills Forest Dynamics Plot. This is a 52-hectare (130-acre) area of the forest in which all trees thicker than 1.5 cm at breast height have been measured, mapped and identified. Every few years, researchers do a census of these trees so they can track their growth and changes in the population structure of each species. A census of all trees in the plot found 1175 different species. [7] This gives Lambir Hills National Park possibly the highest diversity of trees of any forest in the Old World.
The dominant family of trees in the park is the Dipterocarpaceae, whose members include Shorea and Dryobalanops species. As Lambir Hills National Park is the last intact patch of lowland dipterocarp forest left in Sarawak it is an important refuge for species that have been heavily logged elsewhere.
Among the tallest trees in the national park is the tapang (Koompassia excelsa), which can grow more than 80 metres tall, and which honey bees like to build their hives on. Other interesting plants in the park include several species of Macaranga that have formed a symbiotic relationship with ants. The ants live inside the plants' hollow stems and protect them from herbivorous insects.
The pitcher plant Nepenthes hispida is found only in the park and surrounding area. [8] The park has a very high diversity of figs ( Ficus species), with nearly 80 species. [9]
Several research institutes have collaborated on long-term studies of the Lambir's natural history and many individual MSc or PhD students have completed their fieldwork there.
In addition to the Lambir Hills Forest Dynamics Plot mentioned above, Lambir has a series of tree towers, a canopy walkway and a canopy crane that researchers use to gain access to different parts of the forest's vertical structure.
With its picturesque waterfalls, good birdwatching and impressive tall trees, the park is popular with tourists, especially at weekends when more people from Miri travel there for a day visit. For longer stays, visitors can book one of several chalets.
There are several trails for tourists to explore. These range from short and fairly flat walks to the long and sometimes steep trek to the summit of Bukit Lambir, the tallest point in the park.
Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in Borneo and Malaysia. With an elevation of 4,095 metres (13,435 ft), it is the third-highest peak of an island on Earth, the 28th highest peak in Southeast Asia, and 20th most prominent mountain in the world. The mountain is located in Ranau district, West Coast Division of Sabah, Malaysia. It is protected as Kinabalu Park, a World Heritage Site.
Dipterocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants with 22 genera and about 695 known species of mainly lowland tropical forest trees. Their distribution is pantropical, from northern South America to Africa, the Seychelles, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. The greatest diversity of Dipterocarpaceae occurs in Borneo.
The Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is a 1.7-square-kilometre (0.66 sq mi) nature reserve near the geographic centre of Singapore, located on the slopes of Bukit Timah Hill, the country's highest natural peak standing at a height of approximately 165 metres (541 ft), and parts of the surrounding area, located actually in Bukit Panjang. The nature reserve is about 15 kilometres from the Downtown Core, Singapore's central business district (CBD).
The Sundaland heath forests, also known as Kerangas forest, is a type of tropical moist forest found on the island of Borneo, which is divided between Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as on the Indonesian islands of Belitung and Bangka, which lie to the west of Borneo.
Shorea is a genus of about 196 species of mainly rainforest trees in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The timber of trees of the genus is sold under the common names lauan, luan, lawaan, meranti, seraya, balau, bangkirai, and Philippine mahogany.
The black-capped fruit bat is a species of megabat in the monotypic genus Chironax.
The dayak fruit bat or dyak fruit bat is a relatively rare frugivorous megabat species found only on the Sunda Shelf of southeast Asia, specifically the Malay Peninsula south of the Isthmus of Kra, and the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. There are three species in the genus Dyacopterus: D. spadiceus, D. brooksi and D. rickarti. All are found in the forests of Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Few specimens of any of the three species exist, due not only to their rarity, but also because they rarely enter the sub-canopy of the forest where they can be caught in scientists' nets.
Danum Valley Conservation Area is a 438 square kilometres tract of relatively undisturbed lowland dipterocarp forest in Sabah, Malaysia. It has an extensive diversity of tropical flora and fauna, including such species as the rare Bornean orangutans, gibbons, mousedeer, clouded leopards and over 270 bird species. Activities offered are jungle treks, river swimming, bird watching, night jungle tours and excursions to nearby logging sites and timber mills.
The Sunda flying lemur, also called Malayan flying lemur and Malayan colugo is the sole colugo species of the genus Galeopterus. It is native to Southeast Asia from southern Myanmar, Thailand, southern Vietnam, Malaysia to Singapore and Indonesia and listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. Although it is called "flying lemur", it cannot fly but glides among trees and is strictly arboreal. It is active at night, and feeds on soft plant parts such as young leaves, shoots, flowers, and fruits. It is a forest-dependent species.
Koompassia excelsa is an emergent tropical rainforest tree species in the family Fabaceae. It is found in Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. It is one of the tallest tropical tree species: the tallest measured specimen is 85.8 m or 88 m(281 or 289 ft) tall.
The pygmy treeshrew is a treeshrew species within the family Tupaiidae. It is native to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The generic name is derived from the Malay word tupai meaning squirrel or small animals that resemble squirrels.
Anthoshorea confusa is a species of plant in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The species name is derived from Latin and refers to the fact that this species is often misidentified as Anthoshorea virescens. A. confusa is endemic to Borneo. It is an emergent tree, up to 50 metres (160 ft) tall, in mixed dipterocarp forest on clay-rich soils. It is a light hardwood sold under the trade names of white meranti. A. confusa is found in at least three protected areas, but is threatened elsewhere due to habitat loss.
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The Borneo montane rain forests is an ecoregion on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. It includes montane tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, also known as a cloud forests. The ecoregion is partly in East Malaysia and Indonesia (Kalimantan).
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