Near Trang, Thailand Photograph by Alfredo Quarto, Mangrove Action Project, www.earthisland.org/map/index.htm   Southern Asia: Along the coasts of India, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Thailand Mangroves   8,200 square miles (21,300 square kilometers) -- about the size of New Jersey and Rhode Island combined Critical/Endangered

· Elephants on the Edge
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
More Photos

Elephants on the Edge

Down along the coast of Myanmar, where the Irrawaddy River finally spills into the sea, many forms of life teeter on the edge of extinction. Once-mighty stands of mangrove trees now are degraded or chopped down. Mammals and birds that once could be seen everywhere now live in isolated pockets. Of these, one group is small in number but significant: the wild Asian elephant.

Special Features

These coastal mangroves are among the most degraded mangrove systems in the entire Indo-Pacific region. The trees have been overexploited by forestry, agriculture, and development projects. Still, several mangrove species manage to survive here, divided into three different areas--the Rakhine mangroves, Irrawaddy mangroves, and Taninthayi mangroves.

	Asian elephants communicate by touch, scent, and sound. When a young elephant is nervous, it will go to an adult and place the tip of its trunk in the adult’s mouth. Grownup males secrete an odor that signals to females when they are ready to reproduce. Scientists have also discovered that elephants communicate in sounds that are so low in frequency that human ears cannot detect them.

Wild Side

The Rakhine portion of this ecoregion is one of the last places where Asian elephants still roam in the wild. During the dry summer months, elephants come down from the mountains to the mangroves to drink salt water. The Bengal tiger used to be plentiful throughout the ecoregion, but their numbers have dwindled. It is unclear how many tigers, if any, are still present in the mangroves. Other predators--such as leopards, wild dogs, and otters--have also largely disappeared. As a result, species that would normally fall prey to these creatures are abundant throughout the ecoregion, including several species of deer. The mangroves are also havens for migratory and resident waterfowl such as herons, plovers, gulls, and cormorants. One threatened bird is the edible-nest swiftlet, whose nests are a valuable delicacy and widely collected by local people.

Cause for Concern

The ecoregion is under the severe threat of complete conversion to agricultural uses. New areas of mangroves are being continually cut, and the fertilizer used in reclaimed areas causes more harm than good by accumulating into a poisonous acid sulphate over time. Poaching of wildlife and illegal logging are rampant. To make matters worse, because of upstream erosion, the Irrawaddy River is one of the most silted rivers in the world--with sediment collecting along the coast.

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