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How Many Birds You can Find for Your Birding Trip in Laos
Birding Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in southeast Asia, traces its history to the Kingdom of Lan Xang or Land of a Million Elephants, which existed from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. It is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia at the heart of the Indochinese peninsula, bordered by Myanmar (Burma) and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand to the west and southwest.After a period as a French protectorate, it gained independence in 1949..
Laos has a thickly forested landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia at 2,817 m (9,242 ft), with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River forms a large part of the western boundary with Thailand, whereas the mountains of the Annamite Chain form most of the eastern border with Vietnam.The climate is tropical and monsoonal. There is a distinct rainy season from May to November, followed by a dry season from December to April. Local tradition holds that there are three seasons (rainy, cold and hot) as the latter two months of the climatologically defined dry season are noticeably hotter than the earlier four months. The capital and largest city of Laos is Vientiane, and other major cities include Luang Prabang, Savannakhet and Pakxe.In 1993, the government set aside 21% of the nation’s land area as National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (NBCA), which it intended to be developed into a national park system.Laos is the home to the Indochinese tiger, the giant gaur, and the Asian elephant. A number of animal species have been discovered or re-discovered in Laos in recent years. These include the striped or Annamite rabbit, the saola, and most recently the Laotian rock rat or kha-nyou.The country is one of four in the opium poppy growing region known as the “Golden Triangle”. Laos has a low-income economy, with one of the lowest annual incomes in the world.
Much of Laos lacks adequate infrastructure with no railway system and few paved roads apart from major routes. However, tourism is increasingly important and provision is rapidly growing.
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