| Profile: Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park |
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Click below for an interactive look at the Khao Sam Roi Yod landscape from Khao Daeng viewpoint.
 Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park represents the fourth site in Thailand where extensive and focused fishing cat surveys have taken place. The park is a 98 km2 coastal protected area with marine and terrestrial components. The park was established in 1966 as Thailand’s first coastal national park. The most distinctive features of the park are a prominent karst limestone mountain outcrop, approximately 30 km of alternately rocky, sandy and mangrove coastline, and a significant portion of Thailand’s largest freshwater marsh (~70 km2 total with about half of that within the protected area) which was recently (February 2008) designated Thailand’s 11th Ramsar site.
The vegetation of the terrestrial portion of the park consists of scrubby mixed decidous forest on the karst formations, limited areas of mangrove and swamp forest, and active and fallow agricultural areas. Shrimp propagation ponds and rice paddies are tightly packed against the park’s highly interdigitated boundary. The park management is pursuing active mangrove reforestation in some areas. Mangrove areas are dominated by olive mangrove (Avicennia marina), large-leaved mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata), and small-leaved mangrove (R. apiculata). The more intact marsh areas are dominated by common reed (Phragmites karka), water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis), reed grass (Arundo donax), and lesser reedmace (Typha angustifolia). Where these areas transition into fallow fields and seasonal rice production areas, grasses such as Solanum indicum, Passiflora foetida, and swollen finger grass (Chloris barbata) dominate and occur with a variety of woody shrubs that provide a mosaic of cover ranging from 1 to 3 meters in height. Occasional palms, tamarinds, and various other tree species are scatted throughout this lower vegetation layer and serve as anchors for more structurally developed patches of reed-grass dominated vegetation that may serve as refuge “islands” for larger species such as fishing cats during the day. The majority of these fields are burned in the dry season (December-March) although the “refuge” patches appear somewhat resistant to a full burn.
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©2009 Fishing Cat Research and Conservation Project
