A tropical lowland rainforest running about 1,600 km along both sides of the Barisan Mountains on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, covering roughly 260,000 square kilometers at an average elevation of 167 meters. A dipterocarp canopy reaching 90 meters shelters critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceroses, Sumatran orangutans and Sumatran tigers alongside Asian elephants, Lar gibbons, Malayan tapirs and more than 450 recorded bird species. Understory trees including peacock-flower relatives, torchwood and over 100 mulberry species grow beneath the dipterocarps, with epiphytes common through the canopy layers. Only about 7 percent of the ecoregion carries formal protection, and illegal logging and human encroachment have put the forest under sustained pressure.
Facts
Area (sq km) Cross-Tradition Connections
Demonstrates
Rafflesia, native to the Sumatran lowland rainforest, is pollinated by carrion flies drawn to the odor of decaying flesh its flowers produce.
Hosts
Characteristic canopy-dwelling primate of the Sumatran lowland rainforest.
Critically endangered large mammal characteristic of the Sumatran lowland rainforest.
Characteristic large predator of the Sumatran lowland rainforest per the ecoregion's own species roster.
Sources
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