Hills above Mentawai, Irian Jaya, Indonesia Photograph by John Dumbacher   Southeastern Asia: Mentawai Islands and Enggano Island in Indonesia Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   2,500 square miles (6,500 square kilometers) -- about half the size of Connecticut Critical/Endangered

· Mentawai's Own Mammals
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Mentawai's Own Mammals

If you visit the Mentawai Islands Rain Forests, you probably won't see an enormous number of mammals, especially compared to other tropical regions. But of those you do see, an amazing 17 out of a total of 46 species are endemic, including Mentawai macaques, Mentawai palm civets, Mentawai squirrels, and Mentawai leaf monkeys.

Special Features

The Mentawai Islands separated from the mainland of Sumatra more than a half million years ago. That isolation has helped create the biological diversity the islands now enjoy. Some species are relicts of early Indo-Malayan animal communities. And others have evolved here in ways that make them distinctive from other Asian species. These island forests receive about 240 inches (600 centimeters) of rain per year, which nurtures an abundance of large, buttressed trees.

	Mentawai's snub-nosed monkey is related to Borneo's proboscis monkey. But to detect the difference, you have to ignore the primates' unusual noses and look at their tails--the snub-nosed monkey’s is shorter!

Wild Side

Four primates range within these island forests, including the world's only monogamous primate: the Mentawai leaf monkey. These primates live in male-female pairs within a home range. Other monkeys--such as the region's Mentawai macaques and snub-nosed monkeys--live in groups of many females with a single or smaller group of adult males. Visit these forests and you may see Mentawai three-striped squirrels leaping through the trees. Or you may spot Sipura flying squirrels gliding from branch to branch. Mentawai Island and Enggano Island support many birds, too, including the endemic Enggano scops-owl, Mentawai scops-owl, and Enggano white-eye.

Cause for Concern

Although some data suggest that more than 60 percent of this habitat is intact, recent reports confirm that large-scale logging has devastated most of the remaining habitat. This ecoregion contains three protected areas, one of them quite large. But scientists don't know how well these areas are being protected, given the recent spate of logging.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.