|
|
Climb up Malaysia's Mt. Kinabalu and you'll pass through several zones of incredibly varied plant life. First you'll see many lowland species, including abundant fig trees and carnivorous pitcher plants. Climb higher and you'll notice that the trees become shorter and less varied. You'll walk among dwarf shrubs, mosses, lichens, liverworts, and ferns. Climb even higher and you'll be walking not on soil but on exposed granite. Growing here are occasional shrubs and the world's greatest concentration of wild orchids. And throughout this mountain ascent, you'll also see an incredible variety of bird and mammal life.
The Kinabalu Montane Alpine Meadows have been isolated from other mountain chains for millions of years. About 35 million years ago, marine sediments were transformed into rock where Mt. Kinabalu now stands. Ten million years later, these layers of shale and sandstone were uplifted to form a mountain range. Ten million years after that, a mass of magma intruded and solidified into granite, which began to be uplifted at a rate of an inch (2.5 cm) every five years. This exposed granite body, which is still growing, is Mt. Kinabalu. At more than 13,200 feet (4000 m), it is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and New Guinea. And it shares plant species with the Himalayas, China, Australia, and New Zealand.
More than 180 bird species live among the many habitats of the Kinabalu Montane Alpine Meadows ecoregion. Among them are mountain serpent-eagles, Dulit frogmouths, eyebrowed jungle flycatchers, and bare-headed laughingthrushes. The Bornean spiderhunter, another kind of bird, lives here and nowhere else. Most of the 114 mammals species of this ecoregion live in the forest canopy. Twenty-eight of Borneo's 34 squirrel species scurry among the trees. Other canopy dwellers include tree shrews, slow lorises, tarsiers, gray leaf monkeys, red leaf monkeys, orangutans, Borneo gibbons, linsangs, and binturongs. On the ground you may spy deer, Malaysian weasels, small-clawed otters, and leopard cats. Among the endemic or near-endemic animal species of this region are Bornean black shrews, Bornean ferret-badgers, Hose's civets, and mountain spiny rats.
To some extent, the plant and animal species of this ecoregion are protected by the steepness of the terrain and the poor soil, which make logging and farming difficult. Still, about one-third of the region has been cleared or degraded. Road construction has increased tourist access and led to badly planned tourist development. Mining and overcollection of species such as rare orchids also threaten the region's biodiversity. Enforcement of park rules and regulations is seldom done. For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report. All text by World Wildlife Fund © 2001
|
More Photos
