Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries


State Party = THA
Type = Natural
Criteria = vii, ix, x
ID = 591
Region = Asia-Pacific
Year = 1991
Session = 15th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/591

Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary ( _th. เขตรักษาพันธุ์สัตว์ป่าทุ่งใหญ่นเรศวร) is a protected area in Thailand. It is located in the northern part of Kanchanaburi province and southern part of Tak province and was created on April 24, 1974. It was later declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1991,cite web|url=http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/thungyai.html|title=Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary|month=March | year=1991|publisher=United Nations Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre|accessdate=2008-07-21] together with the adjoining Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. Thungyai was extended in 1991 and stretches now over an area of 364.000 ha [http://www.dnp.go.th/p_wildlife/Sanctuarywave/Framesan03.htm] . Combined with Huai Kha Khaeng (257,464 ha), it forms the largest protected area in Mainland South-east Asia, covering in total 622,200ha.

History

King Naresuan of Ayutthaya twice made bases in this area (in 1590 and 1605) to prepare for an invasion of Burma. Later this site was called "Thungyai Naresuan", which means great grassland of "Naresuan".

The area has been relatively uninhabited. The forested hills are unsuitable for farming and the area is still malaria-infested. This ironically prevented the environment from being changed much by humans and therefore kept it in its natural condition. Because of that, most of the wild animals typically found in forested areas in South East Asia have been seen in this area, including some rare ones such as tigers.

Climate

The wildlife sanctuary's climatic zone belongs to the tropical zone or subtropics due to its height. The average temperature is between (in degrees Celsius) 15 - 35 in summer, 20 - 33 in the rainy season, and 10 - 29 in the dry season. It has annual rainfall of 2000ml.

Flora

The principal vegetation types in Thungyai are hill evergreen forests (54,900ha), dry evergreen forests (112,900), mixed deciduous forest (164,100ha) and dry dipterocarp forest (3,600ha), savanna forest (9,900ha), grassland (3,900ha) and areas of swidden agriculture (15,400ha).

Fauna

The fauna of Thungyai includes some 120 mammals, 400 birds, 96 reptiles, 43 amphibians and 113 freshwater fish. Some more species are suspected as being present but not confirmed.The sanctuary is big enough to support space for several large mammals, which are rare or absent now in most aras of Thailand. Tiger, leopard, clouded leopard, Asiatic elephant, tapir, Sumatran rhinoceros, gaur, mainland serow and hog deer are found here. In 1985 a herd of 50 gaur was seen, the largest herd recorded in Thailand. Neither banteng, nor wild water buffalo are confirmed for the area, although both species live in the neighbouring Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. A track of The Javan rhinoceros, which is said to have existed in the area was photographed in 1988.

ee also

*Western Forest Complex

References

External links

* [http://www.thungyai.org Western Forest Conservation Club]
* [http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/thungyai.html unep]
* [http://www.sefut.uni-freiburg.de/buergineng.htm] Ethnic minority people in Thung Yai