Ao Phang Nga National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติอ่าวพังงา) is in Phang Nga Province in southern

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. It includes coastal sections of

Mueang Phang Nga District Mueang Phang Nga ( th, เมืองพังงา, , ) is the capital district ('' amphoe mueang'') of Phang Nga province in southern Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is ...

and Takua Thung District. Most of the park consists of an area of the

Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...

studded with numerous limestone

tower karst Tower karst are tall rock structures made up of soluble rock such as limestone. Tower karst forms as near-vertical joints and fractures are eroded downward by solution leaving parts of a previously coherent rock mass isolated from each other. Tow ...

islands. The best known of these islands is

Khao Phing Kan Khao Phing Kan ( th, เขาพิงกัน, ) or Ko Khao Phing Kan (, ) is an island in Thailand, in Phang Nga Bay northeast of Phuket. About from the shores of Khao Phing Kan lies a tall islet called Ko Ta Pu (, ) or Ko Tapu (, ). Th ...

, popularly called "James Bond Island" because it was used as a location for the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

movie ''The Man with the Golden Gun''. The dramatic appearance of the islands with their sheer sides has made the area a popular tourist attraction. The park also protects the largest area of native

mangrove forest Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fr ...

remaining in Thailand. Sunset from above Phang-nga

History

The park was created by royal decree and announced in the ''Royal Gazette'' under proclamation number 98, section 64, 29 April 1981. It occupies 250,000 rai ~ .

Environment

The effects of mass tourism on the park prompted

Fodor's Fodor's is a publisher of English language travel and tourism information. Fodor's Travel and Fodors.com are divisions of Internet Brands. History Founder Eugene Fodor was a keen traveler, but felt that the guidebooks of his time were boring ...

Travel to place the park on their "No List" for 2018, suggesting that tourists skip the park in order to allow it to recuperate from being loved to death.

Geology

According to its structure and geomorphology, it is a mountain range that originated approximately between the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

and the early

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

period, approximately 136-36 million years ago. It is also the result of a structural feature known as fault. "Khlong Marui fault" and "Phang Nga fault." There are also sedimentary rock and metamorphic mountains interspersed in line, especially in the limestone mountains. As a result of this change in the natural environment, many holes or caves are formed. Prehistoric evidence of human habitation was discovered in 1987 at Khao Tao in Phang Nga Bay National Park by a discovery of human burial grounds. By study fossils of shells in caves and rocks on islands in Phang Nga bay, it was found that during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and early

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

epochs, about 11,000 years ago, sea levels dropped significantly during the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

. The rocky mountains that are islands as seen today are mostly on the upland. Around 7,500-8,500 years ago, the sea level gradually rose to around 4.5 meters above current sea level. Around 4,000-5,000 years ago, sea levels interchangeably rose and fell. Around 2,700-3,700 years ago, sea level was relatively stable but were 1.5 and 2.5 meters higher than the present. Around 1,500 years ago, the sea level was 1.5 meters higher than the present.

Flora and Fauna

Within Ao Phang-nga contains one of the largest and best-preserved mangrove forests in Thailand. The forest has important functions in the coastal ecosystem, such as a natural storm barrier and a breeding ground for marine living animals. Common plant species in the mangrove forest are

Rhizophora apiculata Rhizophora apiculata (''R. apiculata'') belongs to the Plantae kingdom under the Rhizophoraceae family. Currently ''R. apiculata'' is distributed throughout Australia (Queensland and Northern Territory), Guam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Microne ...

Rhizophora mucronata ''Rhizophora mucronata'' (loop-root mangrove, red mangrove or Asiatic mangrove) is a species of mangrove found on coasts and river banks in East Africa and the Indo-Pacific region. Description ''Rhizophora mucronata'' is a small to medium si ...

Avicennia alba ''Avicennia alba'' is a species of tropical mangrove in the family Acanthaceae. It is found growing in coastal and estuarine locations in India, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Oceania. Description ''A. alba'' forms a low, dense bushy crown ofte ...

Avicennia officinalis ''Avicennia officinalis'' is a species of mangrove also known as Indian mangrove. It is named after the famous Persian scientist Ibn Sina. The young tree forms a low, dense bushy crown. When it matures, it forms a columnar tree up to 15 m and ...

Bruguiera cylindrica ''Bruguiera cylindrica'' is a mangrove in the family Rhizophoraceae. It grows in mangrove swamps in tropical Asia. Description ''Bruguiera cylindrica'' is a small tree growing up to tall but often grows as a bush. The bark is smooth and grey, ...

Bruguiera parviflora ''Bruguiera parviflora'' is a tree in the family Rhizophoraceae. The specific epithet ' is from the Latin meaning "small flowers". Description ''Bruguiera parviflora'' grows up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is pale grey to p ...

, and the cannonball trees

Xylocarpus granatum ''Xylocarpus granatum'', commonly known as the cannonball mangrove, cedar mangrove, or puzzlenut tree, is a species of mangrove in the mahogany family (Meliaceae). It is found in Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific Islands. It is a commo ...

and

Xylocarpus moluccensis ''Xylocarpus moluccensis'' is a tree in the family Meliaceae. It is named for the Moluccas archipelago (now Maluku Islands). Description ''Xylocarpus moluccensis'' grows up to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The flowers are creamy-white. ...

. Inside the islands, tropical rainforest grows with species such as

Hopea ferrea ''Hopea ferrea'' is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. It is native to Cambodia, Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., g ...

, the pea plant

Parkia timoriana ''Parkia timoriana'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family. English common names include tree bean.Thangjam, R. and L. Sahoo. (2012)''In vitro'' regeneration and ''Agrobacterium tumefaciens''-mediated genetic transformation of '' ...

, and

Acacia catechu ''Senegalia catechu'' is a deciduous, thorny tree which grows up to in height. The plant is called ''khair''
in H ...

, the mulberry tree

Artocarpus lacucha ''Artocarpus lacucha'', also known as monkey jack or monkey fruit, is a tropical evergreen tree species of the family Moraceae. It is distributed throughout the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The tree is valued for its wood; its fruit ...

, the Clusia tree

Garcinia cowa ''Garcinia cowa'', commonly known as cowa fruit or cowa mangosteen is an evergreen plant with edible fruit native to Asia, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and southwest China. The tree is harvested from the wild for ...

and Morinda coreia, and on more calcareous soil

Colocasia gigantea ''Colocasia gigantea'', also called giant elephant ear or Indian taro, is a 1.5–3 m tall herb with a large, fibrous corm, producing at its apex a whorl of large leaves. The leaf stalk is used as a vegetable in some areas in South East Asia and ...

, Pandanus monotheca, and Cycas ingas. An inventory in 1991 resulted in 206 animal species, divided into 17 mammal species, 88 bird species, 18 reptile species, 3 amphibians, 24 fish species and 45 other marine animals. The

lar gibbon The lar gibbon (''Hylobates lar''), also known as the white-handed gibbon, is an endangered primate in the gibbon family, Hylobatidae. It is one of the better-known gibbons and is often kept in captivity. Taxonomy There are five subspecies of ...

and

serow The serows ( or ) are four species of medium-sized goat-like or antelope-like mammals of the genus ''Capricornis''. All four species of serow were until recently also classified under ''Naemorhedus'', which now only contains the gorals. Extant ...

has previously been found in the area, but now become extinct in the region. Endangered mammal species within the national park are

smooth-coated otter The smooth-coated otter (''Lutrogale perspicillata'') is an otter species occurring in most of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with a disjunct population in Iraq. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1996 and is thre ...

, leaf monkeys, and smoky leaf monkeys and the

crab-eating macaque The crab-eating macaque (''Macaca fascicularis''), also known as the long-tailed macaque and referred to as the cynomolgus monkey in laboratories, is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. A species of macaque, the crab-eating macaqu ...

. The

brahminy kite The brahminy kite (''Haliastur indus''), formerly known as the red-backed sea-eagle in Australia, is a medium-sized bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors, such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers. ...

pacific reef heron The Pacific reef heron (''Egretta sacra''), also known as the eastern reef heron or eastern reef egret, is a species of heron found throughout southern Asia and Oceania. It occurs in two colour morphs with either slaty grey or pure white pluma ...

white-bellied sea eagle The white-bellied sea eagle (''Haliaeetus leucogaster''), also known as the white-breasted sea eagle, is a large diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Originally described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it is closely related t ...

, many species of

kingfishers Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

asian dowitcher The Asian dowitcher (''Limnodromus semipalmatus'') is a rare medium-large wader. Description Adults have dark legs and a long straight dark bill, somewhat shorter than that of the long-billed dowitcher. The body is brown on top and reddish under ...

, and edible-nest swiftlet are species of birds that could be found here. Among reptiles and amphibians, mangroves snakes,

rhacophoridae The Rhacophoridae are a family of frogs that occur in tropical sub-Saharan Africa, South India and Sri Lanka, Japan, northeastern India to eastern China and Taiwan, south through the Philippines and Greater Sundas, and Sulawesi. They are commonly ...

, and saltwater frogs can be found here.

References

External links