The tropical flora and fauna of Vietnam
Vietnam is a country in Asia located on the Indochinese Peninsula, The country borders to the South China sea, the Gulf of Tonkin and the Gulf of Thailand. Its closest neighbours are China, Laos and Cambodia and the nation is a part of the biologically and culturally important Mekong River Delta region.
The vietnames highlands are densely forested and the lowlands are humid and hot, both areas are home to a large number of different plants and animals. Scientist are constantly finding new species in Vietnamn and the countries wildlife is far from cataloged yet. The country is home to more than 100 species of amphibians, 150 species of reptiles and more than 2000 plant speces including 800 species of food, among the animals can be found popular species such as two newly discovered species of muntjac deer. Click here if you want to read more about the tropical flowers of the country.
Vietnam is located in a spot where various atmospheric currents converge and has therefore received plenty of airborne seeds from the north, west and south, so the monkeys, gibbons and langurs found in the dense limestone forests can certainly feast on a multitude of fruits and berries. One of only four previously unknown large land animals to be discovered during the 20th century is native to Vietnam a wild ox that belongs to an entirely new genus. Two new species of muntjac deer has as earlier mentioned been discribed in Vietnam recently, both of the new species was founf in the same nature preserve, the Vu Quang nature reserve.
Vu Quang is located in a remote densely forested part of Vietnam in the Ha Tin province which is located on the north central coast. The area is well known for its steep mountains and dense rainforest and history buffs might know this as the base for the Phan Dinh Phung, the Vietnamese revolutionary army that fought the french colonial forces for independance during the late 1800s. The Nature Reserve is a very hot and humid place since the tall mountains trap moisture coming in from the South China Sea. The rainy season offers continuous rain rather than separated thunder storms and the dry season can hardly be described as dry in a conventional sense of the word since there is such an abundance of fog. It is very hard to move about in the preserve since all areas are wet and covered in algae wich makes them slippry. Not even local hunters like to enter the forest.
A marvel of nature that is easier to access it the 30 meter high Ban Gioc waterfall the 4th highest waterfall in the world along a national border. this spectacular waterfall separates the Guangxi Province in China from the Cao Bang province in Vietnam and is located approximately 272 km north of Hanoi. On top of the waterfall there is a stone tablet engraved in Chinese and French saying that it marks the border.
Close to the waterfall you can explore the Tongling Gorge but only if you’re willing to access it trough a cavern from an adjoining gorge since this is the only entry point. (A gorge is a deep valley between cliffs, typically carved out of the landscape by a river.) The isolated Tongling Gorge is home to a high degree of endemic plants that can be found nowhere else in the world. The Tongling Gorge use to be a favoured hidey-hole for bandits and locals still report finding treasures in the caves.
