Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Once a royal hunting reserve, this area is now the largest single “protected” area in Laos, ex-
tending over 3700 square kilometres, with an elevation ranging from 500m on the Nakai Plat-
eau to mountain peaks of well over 2000m, and is home to at least eleven globally threatened
large mammal species. Its forests provide habitat for most of the mainland Southeast Asia
fauna, including such rare animals as tiger, lesser slow loris, clouded leopard - a small tree-
dwelling cat which hunts birds and monkeys by night - Asiatic black bear and elephant. More
than four hundred bird species, among them the endangered white-winged duck, crested ar-
gus, beautiful nuthatch and greater spotted eagle, have been recorded here, the highest di-
versity of any site surveyed in Laos. The area is also noteworthy for its forests, composed of
stands of wet and dry evergreen, cypress forest, old growth pine, found only in parts of South-
east Asia, and riverside forest - all of which are regionally threatened habitats. Nakai-Nam
Theun is also treasured for its four river systems. However, their hydroelectric potential now
figures large in national development plans, which have consequences for the wildlife of the
surrounding area, not to mention the livelihood of local people.
Further south, spectacular waterfalls plunge from soaring escarpments cloaked with pristine
evergreen forests in
DongHuaSao
, a 910-square-kilometre zone to the east of Pakse and the
south of Paksong, which encompasses a flat, upland area along the Bolaven - of immense
floral and faunal interest - and the lowlands along the Plateau's southern flank. With its habit-
at further diversified by the presence of sandstone flats and wetlands, Dong Hua Sao is home
to nearly 250 species of birds, including the rare Siamese fireback, green peafowl and red-
collared woodpecker as well as primates, including the endangered douc langur and gibbons,
sun bear and the world's largest species of wild cattle, the gaur, once a prized trophy among
big game hunters during colonial times.
Shadowing the Laos-Cambodia border and spanning the southern stretches of Attapeu and
Champasak provinces, the
Xe Pian
is for the most part covered by semi-evergreen forest,
interspersed with tracts of dry dipterocarp forest. Wetlands and riverine systems are also an
important feature of the Xe Pian, which takes its name from the snaking Xe Pian River that
bisects the reserve's eastern and southern flatlands. As home to eight threatened bird species,
the protected area is of global significance for wildlife conservation and supports numerous
lowland bird species as well as a wealth of migrants. Woolly-necked storks and nesting sarus
cranes are both thought to inhabit the wetlands of the Xe Pian. Gibbons also fill the central
forests of the Xe Pian with their unmistakable hooting, and villagers have reported seeing
kouprey, the elusive grey forest ox whose global population is thought to number no more
than three hundred, hog deer and Eld's deer. Black bears, sun bears, peacocks, leopards and
otters, hunted for their skins which are sold to Cambodians, have also been spotted in the
area, as have two rare river creatures: the Irrawaddy dolphin, which is said to still pay season-
al visits to the Xe Pian, and the Siamese crocodile, already extinct in most Southeast Asian
rivers.
