science

Wildlife of Laos

Wildlife of Laos is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wildlife of Laos rather than just read about it. In short: The wildlife of Laos encompasses the animals and plants found in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a landlocked country in southeastern Asia. Part of the country is mountainous and much of it is still clad in tropical broadleaf forest.

Key takeaways

Wildlife of Laos belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wildlife of Laos to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wildlife of Laos from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The wildlife of Laos encompasses the animals and plants found in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a landlocked country in southeastern Asia. Part of the country is mountainous and much of it is still clad in tropical broadleaf forest. It has a great variety of animal and plant species.

Geography Laos is a land-locked country located in southeastern Asia. The northern part is mountainous, with the Luang Prabang Range separating the northwestern part of the country from Thailand. The Xiangkhoang Plateau separates these mountains from the Annamite Range, a chain of mountains which run parallel with the Vietnamese coast, and mark the easternmost boundary of the country. The west of the country is mostly bounded by the broad Mekong River, and the south is the Bolaven Plateau at some 1,000 to 1,350 metres (3,280 to 4,430 ft) above sea level. Laos lies in the monsoon belt and experiences a rainy seasons between May and November when much rain falls, and a dry season without rain from December to April. This results in a natural forest cover of deciduous, broadleaf trees, that lose their leaves during the dry season. There is a distinct rainy season from May to November, followed by a dry season from December to the middle of April.

Habitat Much of Laos is still covered by natural forest and six different species of gibbon are found here, all of which are threatened by being hunted for food and by reduction in forest cover. The Annamite Range has a high level of endemism and is home to the critically endangered saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), the Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi) and the Truong Son muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis), all of which have only been discovered in the last two decades. In the south of the country, mostly within about 50 km (30 mi) of the Mekong River, there are wetlands and swamp forests. These include lakes and ponds, some permanent and some temporary, swamps, and seasonally-flooded grasslands, and these and the surrounding woodlands support a biodiverse community.

Flora

Much of Laos still retains its natural tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and some areas consist of secondary forests growing where timber has been extracted from the primary forest. In general, the upper parts of the canopy are dominated by the cauliflower-like crowns of tall dipterocarps with trunks devoid of branches. The middle levels consist of other hardwood trees including teak, mahogany, Heritiera javanica, Tetrameles nudiflora, Ficus and Pterocarpus. The understorey consists of smaller trees, bamboos, shrubs and grasses. Near the streams are bamboo thickets; Laos is rich with species of bamboo, and where timber has been extracted from primary forest, bamboos tend to dominate in the new-growth secondary forest. In wetter, upland regions of northern Laos, Fujian cypress is dominant, and supports a dense ground cover of mosses and ferns. There is tropical rainforest in the Annamite Mountains because the rainfall is higher and more evenly distributed throughout the year. The dominant species here are Elaeocarpus, Podocarpus, oaks, magnolias, camellias and laurels, and many of these are endemic to this mountain range. In the higher parts of the range there are forests of pine, and the mists that often envelope these cloud forests encourage the growth of lush mosses and ferns on the deep leaf litter, and epiphytes on the branches. In the south of the country, there are tropical pine forests, and on the southern plateau are more open deciduous forests with less-dense, middle-level growth and more shrubs, herbs and grasses below. The bamboo orchid grows here, and the Vietnamese white pine is an uncommon tree that can be seen in the Nakai–Nam Theun conservation area in central Laos. It is one of about 16 species of conifer present in the country.

Fauna

There are a number of large mammals in Laos, including the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti). There are two species of bear, the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) and Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus). Smaller carnivorans include the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) and hog badger (Arctonyx collaris). Ungulates include the pot-bellied pig (Sus scrofa domestica), Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus), banteng (Bos javanicus), kouprey (Bos sauveli), saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak), giant muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis) and Truong Son muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis). There are many rodents, including the ricefield rat (Rattus argentiventer) and the recently discovered Pauline's limestone rat (Saxatilomys paulinae), Laotian giant flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus laoensis) and Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus), the latter being a Lazarus taxon. The lesser false vampire bat (Megaderma spasma) is found in Laos, and endemic species of bat include the Phou Khao Khouay leaf-nosed bat (Hipposideros khaokhouayensis). The long-eared gymnure (Hylomys megalotis) is another mammal endemic to Laos.

Primates present in Laos include the hatinh langur (Trachypithecus hatinhensis), silvery lutung (Trachypithecus cristatus) and red-shanked douc (Pygathrix nemaeus), as well as seven species of gibbon; the lar gibbon (Hylobates lar), pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus), northern buffed-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus annamensis), black crested gibbon (Nomascus concolor), yellow-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae), northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys) and southern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus siki). Snakes present in Laos include the reticulated python (Python reticulatus) and the pit vipers Deinagkistrodon (D. acutus), Chinese mountain pit viper (Ovophis monticola), Jerdon's pit viper (Protobothrops jerdonii), three-horned scaled pit viper (Protobothrops sieversorum), Chinese green tree viper (Trimeresurus stejnegeri) and brown-spotted pit viper (Protobothrops mucrosquamatus).

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wildlife of Laos

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wildlife of Laos claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wildlife of Laos before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wildlife of Laos ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wildlife of Laos

In research: Wildlife of Laos appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wildlife of Laos in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wildlife of Laos is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biota of Laos, Flora of Laos, Wildlife by country, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wildlife of Laos outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Wildlife of Laos in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wildlife of Laos means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wildlife of Laos out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wildlife of Laos in simple terms?

Why does Wildlife of Laos matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wildlife of Laos?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wildlife of Laos.