Kyaikhtiyo Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, stretching over . It covers

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

and

mixed deciduous forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discon ...

s an elevation of in Kyaikto Township. It was established in 2001 to conserve the biodiversity around the

Kyaiktiyo Pagoda Kyaiktiyo Pagoda ( my, ကျိုက်ထီးရိုးဘုရား or ; mnw, ကျာ်သိယဵု ; also known as Golden Rock) is a well-known Buddhist pilgrimage site in Mon State, Myanmar. It is a small pagoda () built on th ...

, a famous pilgrimage site in Mon State. It is managed by the Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division.

Biodiversity

The

Indo-Pacific gecko The Indo-Pacific gecko (''Hemidactylus garnotii'') also known as Garnot's house gecko, the fox gecko, or the Assam greyish brown gecko, is a species of gecko found in India, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Australia, and throughout Polynesia. A ...

(''Hemidactylus garnotii'') occurs in the sanctuary. In 2001, the bent-toed gecko '' Cyrtodactylus aequalis'' was discovered in the sanctuary and described as a new species in 2003. Key wildlife species are leopard (''Panthera pardus''),

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 ...

(''Capricornis milneedwardsiiare''),

red goral The red goral (''Naemorhedus baileyi'') is a species of even-toed ungulate in the subfamily Caprinae in the family Bovidae. It is found in India, Tibet and Myanmar. Its natural habitats are seasonal mountainous areas 1,000 to 2,000 meters above s ...

(''Naemorhedus baileyi''). Sambar deer (''Rusa unicolor''),

Indian muntjac The Indian muntjac or the common muntjac (''Muntiacus muntjak''), also called the southern red muntjac and barking deer, is a deer species native to South and Southeast Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. In popular local l ...

(''Muntiacus muntjak''),

gaur The gaur (''Bos gaurus''; ), also known as the Indian bison, is a bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986. The global population was estimated at a maximum of 21,000 m ...

(''Bos gaurus''),

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

(''Sus scrofa'') are also said to occur in the sanctuary.

Threats

Kyaikhtiyo Wildlife Sanctuary is threatened by

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corruption, corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, o ...

, harvesting of fire wood and hunting of wildlife for subsistence.

References

{{National parks of Myanmar Protected areas of Myanmar Protected areas established in 2001