Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary (Thai: เขตรักษาพันธุ์สัตว์ป่าทุ่งใหญ่นเรศวร) is a protected area in Thailand. It is located in the northern part of Kanchanaburi province and southern part of Tak province. The wildlife sanctuary was created on April 24, 1974. It was later declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1991, together with another Thai wildlife sanctuary, Huai Kha Kheang.
King Naresuan of Ayutthaya twice made bases in this area (in 1590 and 1605) to prepare for an invasion of Burma. Later this site was called Thungyai Naresuan, which means great grassland of Naresuan.
The area has been relatively uninhabited. The forested hills are unsuitable for farming and the area is still malaria-inflicted. This "ironically" prevented the environment from being changed much by humans and therefore kept it in its natural condition. Because of that, most of the wild animals typically found in forested areas in South East Asia have been seen in this area, including some rare ones such as tigers.
Climate
The wildlife sanctuary's climatic zone belongs to tropical zone or subtropics due to its hight. The average temperature is between (in degrees Celsius) 15 - 35 in summer, 20 - 33 in rainy season, 10 - 29 in dry season. It has annual rainfall of 2000ml.
See also
Western Forest Complex
External links
Protected Areas Programme (http://www.wcmc.org.uk/protected_areas/data/wh/thungyai.html)
Official Homepage (In Thai) (http://www.dnp.go.th/conserv/wildlife/sanctuary/sanc7.htm)
Western Forest Conservation Club (http://www.thungyai.org)
Thungyai is the heart of the western forest complex, which is comprised of 17 forest regions, situated in western Thailand along the Tranao Sri Mountain Range, near the Mayanmar border.
Thungyai is also home to large proportion of Thailands wildlife species: 153 of 258 mammal species, 400 of 930 bird species, 188 of 500 fish species, 89 of 313 reptile species, and 41 of 106 amphibean species.
The Thungyai Forest can be compared to the Amazon Rainforest of South America because it supplies oxygen to southeast Asia and moderates flooding during the rainy season.
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