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Rain forest is a woodland of tall trees growing in a region of year-round warmth and abundant rainfall. Almost all rain forests lie at or near the equator. They form an evergreen belt of lush vegetation that encircles the planet.
The Indo-Malayan rainforests are the oldest in the world, making those in Africa and South America seem adolescent in comparison. While creeping icecaps were swelling and shrinking across the northern hemisphere, the Indo-Malayan jungles lay undisturbed – for an estimated 130 million years. As a result many diverse species of animal and plant life evolved, with a large number of these occurring nowhere else in the world.
Rainforests on the Malaysia peninsula and in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo continue to excite a great deal of scientific interest. Scientists can spend entire lifetimes at work here. Some optimists believe that some undiscovered plant may hold cures to many currently incurables human diseases.
The biodiversity in the Malaysian jungles are truly staggering. It is estimated that over 15,000 flowering plant species (9 percent of the world’s total) and 185,00 animal species (16 percent of the world’s total) are found in Malaysia. Malaysia’s flowering plants include some 2,000 types of trees, including 200 different palms, and 3,000 species of orchids, the most exotic of flowers. The 50 hectare (125 acre) Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) contains more tree species than exist in the whole of North America!!!
The world’s largest flower, the Rafflesia, is unique to the region. Carnivorous pitcher plants can be seen, most abundantly on the slopes of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, but also in Peninsula/West Malaysia, waiting for careless insects to drop in and drown. Another record-breaker is the towering Tualang tree, tallest of all tropical trees. It can reach up to 80
meters (260 ft) in height.
The Malaysian rainforest holds hundred of thousands of animal species, many of which are unique to the region and the world. Almost 300 species of mammals live here including tigers, elephants, rhinoceros, black and white tapirs, civet cats (called "musang" in Malay), leopards, honey bears and two kinds of deer – the sambar, and the barking deer (called "kijang" in Malay) with its dog-like call. Malaysia is also home to the cat-sized mousedeer( called "kanchil" in Malay) which is technically not a deer at all. There is also the badger-like binturong with its prehensile tail and many kinds of gibbons (small apes) and monkeys including the quaint loris with its sad eyes and lethargic manner. Sabah and Sarawak is home to the extraordinary
Orang-Utan.
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